Oh, I don't mean to imply that solar and wind are entirely unpredictable (I was hoping my comments about hydro would cover that), but they aren't always predictable when and where you need it. One of the problems for BIG infrastructure (say, hospitals and apartment buildings), is that they often have their peak demand almost instantaneously in the morning - often before the sun comes up. For solar, that means you can't directly address this peak demand without some way of shifting that generation capacity. But, as you say, unlike some of the arguments over the years trying to prove that solar is untenable, I think it's predictability, combined with additional advances elsewhere, will indeed push us toward a better future, at least until that "fusion" stuff gets around to being feasible :)
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Oh, I don't mean to imply that solar and wind are entirely unpredictable (I was hoping my comments about hydro would cover that), but they aren't always predictable when and where you need it. One of the problems for BIG infrastructure (say, hospitals and apartment buildings), is that they often have their peak demand almost instantaneously in the morning - often before the sun comes up. For solar, that means you can't directly address this peak demand without some way of shifting that generation capacity. But, as you say, unlike some of the arguments over the years trying to prove that solar is untenable, I think it's predictability, combined with additional advances elsewhere, will indeed push us toward a better future, at least until that "fusion" stuff gets around to being feasible :)