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A comment on Solar Surpasses Gas and Wind as Biggest Source of New U.S. Power. Parent comment

Re:Solar Surpasses Gas and Wind as Biggest Source of New U.S... by bcatanzaro on Tuesday June 12, 2018 @10:37AM (#17293633)
Right, but the average capacity factor for natural gas plants in the US is about 56%.

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=25652

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Re:Solar Surpasses Gas and Wind as Biggest Source of New U.S... by philipkglass on Tuesday June 12, 2018 @01:34PM (#17295671)
The capacity factor for utility scale solar PV in the US was 27% in 2017:

https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.ph...

The capacity factor gap with utility scale gas plants isn't as large as you might guess from looking at residential rooftop solar.

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Re:Solar Surpasses Gas and Wind as Biggest Source of New U.S... by durkie on Tuesday June 12, 2018 @11:05AM (#17293908)
True. I guess the overall point I was trying to make is that the low capacity factor of solar strengthens the case for this beginning the real transition to renewables, since utilities are used to low capacity-factor assets (and are still choosing solar in spite of that drawback)
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Re:Solar Surpasses Gas and Wind as Biggest Source of New U.S... by toomuchtodo on Tuesday June 12, 2018 @11:24AM (#17294149)
At some point within the next 3-5 years, storage + solar will exceed the capacity factor of natural gas without the fuel price volatility.
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