Alex Ricklefs and Eric Fournier describe the impact of nuclear power plant closures on energy storage needs in the Conversation (http://theconversation.com/).
From the article:
“Currently in California, energy storage is effectively provided by fossil fuel power plants. These natural gas and coal-powered plants provide steady “baseload” power and can ramp up generation to meet peaks in demand, which generally happen in the afternoon and early evening.
A single energy storage device cannot directly replace the capacity potential of these fossil fuel sources, which can generate high rates of power as long as needed.”
Read the article on the Conversation, link here.
Photo by Nuclear Regulatory Commission, license CC BY NC-ND 2.0.