It’s widely believed that wind and solar power can achieve this. Solar power disappears completely every night and drops by 50 per cent or more during cloudy days. This brings with it a new operating regime where stations that were designed to operate continuously have to follow unpredictable fluctuations in wind and solar power. For every MW of wind or solar power in California, $120 million would need to be spent on storage. But if we had 100 per cent nuclear backup for solar and wind, we wouldn’t need the wind and solar plants at all.

Source: New Zealand Herald May 23, 2023 18:13 UTC