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542 points xbmcuser | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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testhest ◴[] No.45037600[source]
Wind is only useful up to a point, once it gets above 20% of generation capacity ensuing grid stability becomes expensive either through huge price swings or grid level energy storage.
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1. sfn42 ◴[] No.45037921[source]
It's fairly rare that there is no wind at all, especially at wind turbine height, and if you have 100 different wind farms spread out across different regions you'll usually have a decent amount of them producing at any given moment. We can also use batteries of various kinds to handle peaks and valleys, not to mention solar, hydro, nuclear and some gas to pick up slack when necessary.

I don't think anyone is expecting wind farms to supply anywhere near 100% of energy production. Probably not even 50%.