Although increased forecasting accuracy for renewables will lessen the need for standby. See "Better Weather Analysis Could Lead to Cheaper Renewables" http://www.technologyreview.com/news/518051/better-weather-a...
Re:Nuclear plants in the US keep closing
by toomuchtodo on Friday May 02, 2014 @05:08PM
(#7688162)
Google invests in a weather forecasting firm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Climate_Corporation); combined with Nest data, Google could lead the utility energy management space.
Re:Nuclear plants in the US keep closing
by InclinedPlane on Saturday May 03, 2014 @01:01AM
(#7689666)
It doesn't require forecasting to predict nightfall every day, that's still a serious problem for solar.
If we want more nuclear capacity we need to be serious about it. I think LFTR probably deserves a few billions in research, if it pans out it could make nuclear competitive on price and reduce a whole crap-ton of issues normally associated with nuclear.