Bus Megathread

[plam]

Actually, for every Kilo Watt Hour of electricity produced by renewables. (Wind or Solar), we require the same amount of production in the form of "instant on" to cover when the solar and wind aren't working (which is quite often).  The best performing instant source is natural gas.  That is why you have seen so many built in the past.  Milton, Brampton etc. They keep them close to use to point of consumption to reduce transmission costs.

Third, natural gas, isn't the "best performing instant source" it's merely the one that is most frequently used. Hydro is just as capable of being turned on and off, and in fact, is used in hydro pumped storage for exactly this purpose. Hydro is better because for gas plants to be "instant on" the must be kept hot, which requires energy, but hydro doesn't require that. And of course by far the best form of "peak" storage is actually grid scale battery storage, which is actually instant on, unlike all the others, and also can store excess power during times of excess renewable production.

I think there is an extraordinary amount of pro-fossil-fuel propaganda which is, well, not factual. Fossil gas is bad. We literally can't afford more fossil gas. As you say, we have hydro, which already is instant on. We can have batteries. We can reduce demand. Even my smart thermostat can help reduce demand (though I'm keen to get it off the fossil gas heater and onto a heat pump).