Re:The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months
by manishsharan on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @04:21PM
(#11623885)
I am clearly out of my depth here but what if we take the newly daytime unused/idle coal power or natural gas power for other endeavors like sea water desalination or just pumping up water into a watertower when daytime energy cost is low and adding increased hydro capacity in the evening when the energy cost is higher?
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Re:The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months
by lancewiggs on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @04:34PM
(#11624007)
Those sources of power have a higher marginal cost and are only spun up when the spot price is high enough - in peak demand times.
Re:The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months
by eru on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @08:12PM
(#11625264)
What you are talking about is demand shaping.
It's already happening, but I predict we'll see more of that in the future.
Eg lots of industrial applications like smelting aluminium can do with short-ish power cuts. In return, they get a steep rebate on their electricity bill.