TIME: Nuclear Energy Is Largely Safe. But Can It Be Cheap?

[PamW]

16. Because it makes SENSE

kris,

It really DOES make COMPLETE SENSE to consider hydro separate from solar / wind.

Yes - hydro is renewable; but hydro is different from solar / wind in a MAJOR way - it's dispatchable.

That means that with a hydro power station; we can control the throttle. We have a valve that can be adjusted to give more or less power as demand dictates. In that regard, hydro is like the other dispatchable energy sources; coal, gas, and nuclear.

The only reason to include dispatchable hydro in with non-dispatchable solar / wind is if you want to bamboozle someone.

You can show how "renewable" hydro can fit the bill if we had enough of it. That's the "bait"; and then you do the "switch" to claiming that solar / wind can do it all also because they are renewable like hydro.

The reason hydro could run the power grid completely if we had enough of it; is because it is "dispatchable".

The bamboozle comes with the "switch" to solar / wind which are NOT dispatchable; and are not in the same category as hydro.

Hydro can "do it all", not because it is renewable; but because it is "dispatchable".

PamW