Solar and Wind Generators Decrease Grid Reliability

An energy mix that includes solar and wind, would have to increase oil or gas-burning in order to maintain electric reliability.

That’s because the electric system requires fast-ramping energy sources like oil and natural gas when the sun stops shining and the wind stops blowing. Forbes

"Some solar and wind advocates suggest that batteries will play the role of fossil fuels and prevent that from happening, but consider that the calculations done by my colleagues Mark Nelson and Madison Czerwinski:

• Tesla’s much-hyped 100 MW lithium battery storage center in Australia can only provide enough backup power for 7,500 homes for four hours;
• The largest lithium battery storage center in the U.S. (in Escondido, California) can only provide enough power for 20,000 homes for four hours;

Are a few hours of battery backup sufficient to integrate solar and wind onto the grid? Not in the slightest.

Solar and wind are unreliable over months and years, not just hours. That means unfathomable quantities of electricity would need to be stored over months or years. Consider that:

• It would take 696 storage centers the size of Tesla’s in Australia to provide just four hours of backup power for the Australian grid — and cost $50 billion;
• It would require 15,280 storage centers the size of Escondido to provide just four hours of backup power for the U.S. grid — at an estimated cost of $764 billion."