Re:Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?
by TomWhitwell on Wednesday December 02, 2020 @04:28PM
(#25281889)
Traditional power stations do exactly this - being closed for maintenance or running on low output for days, weeks or months even the interconnector cables between UK and European power suppliers have failed for months at a time. BUT yes, there's no equivalent of unexpected low wind and/or low solar for days or weeks.
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Re:Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?
by tuatoru on Wednesday December 02, 2020 @10:01PM
(#25284810)
The equivalent is a detached turbine blade, or sudden failure of cooling water pipes/intakes/pumps. Unexpected failures happen all the time.
Re:Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?
by _ph_ on Thursday December 03, 2020 @03:24AM
(#25286798)
The point is, a failing turbine makes not a noticable dent in the electricity production when there are tens of thousands of turbines. At that scale, the number of turbines which are shut down for failures/maintenance becomes a constant. A huge power plant going down in an instant is another problem however.