Inside Energy (https://insideenergy.org/tag/caiso/)
The duck curve has become shorthand for the challenges that utilities face as they add more solar power and other renewables to the grid. Why are power regulators across the country talking about it more and more?
Conventional wisdom has it that without baseload power—coal and nuclear plants running in the background at all times—the grid will become unreliable. After all, how could wind and solar keep the lights on when they are so inherently variable? But now, a growing number of people are challenging that idea. In this interview, Jesse Morris, with the Rocky Mountain Institute, argues baseload power isn’t necessary.
Solar energy is booming in California—so much so that on some days, there’s too much. California would like to send that extra solar to its neighbors in the West, but other western states aren’t sure they want California’s power.
