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Re:The Way Humans Get Electricity Is About to Change by hyperion2010 on Tuesday June 23, 2015 @10:56AM (#9765013)
Decentralized solar might work in some places, but we have a long, long way to go before our existing grid can start to make use of it. We still need old school generating capacity (read: nuclear) to serve peak demand.

The other reason solar has become so attractive is because the spinup time is so much lower than for other traditional sources.

Re:The Way Humans Get Electricity Is About to Change by mikro2nd on Tuesday June 23, 2015 @11:11AM (#9765129)
Except that nuclear plants do not serve peak demand in any way, unless by "peak" you mean something other than the electrical supply industry means by that term; nukes are by nature very much baseload generation, taking days and weeks to spin up and synchronise. Pumped storage, gas turbine, large-scale hydro,... those are peak supply generation that can be brought onstream in minutes to hours to meet peak demand.
Re:The Way Humans Get Electricity Is About to Change by hyperion2010 on Tuesday June 23, 2015 @11:48AM (#9765427)
And don't forget the good old diesel generators that are the last line of defence when all other capacity is maxed out.
Re:The Way Humans Get Electricity Is About to Change by mikro2nd on Tuesday June 23, 2015 @01:08PM (#9766013)
As we currently experience to great cost here in South Africa currently, where, due to a decade of neglected maintenance and capacity building brought about by a short-sighted government, rolling blackouts (euphemistically called "load shedding") are the norm, and diesel generation is brought to bear as a poor substitute for baseload capacity, at - as you may imagine - ruinous financial cost. Something in the region of USD400million a month for diesel fuel. Boy, are we in for some price hikes coming up!
Re:The Way Humans Get Electricity Is About to Change by durkie on Tuesday June 23, 2015 @11:03AM (#9765064)
Batteries (like Tesla's PowerWall) are an increasingly-relevant option for peak loads.

I was also under the impression that most peaker plants are likely to be natural gas fired and not nuclear -- as in, easier to build, and less of an investment to recoup if something better/cheaper comes along for peak loads.