The US has 43 nuclear power plants’ worth of solar energy in the pipeline

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2. CORRECT!!!

FBaggins is correct.

It depends on how you "score" it.

Most environmentalists in their unending propaganda quest; cite nameplate rating. That is what is the maximum capacity of the plant.

Now that works fine with dispatchable technologies; technologies where we control a throttle; because we can get 100% maximum capacity on demand.

But that is INTELLECTUALLY DISHONEST and GROSSLY MISLEADING for non-dispatchable renewables. A wind turbine or solar plant doesn't give you 100% power on demand. It gives you whatever Mother Nature is offering at the time.

That's why one needs to ask the question in terms of the ENERGY, which means factoring in capacity factor.

Solar power for example has an ABSOLUTE maximum limit on capacity factor of 50% - because the Sun doesn't shine at night. Actually, it's WORSE when one takes into account the angle between the Sun's radiation and the solar panel and average over that.

The easiest is to do what FBaggins suggests; and consider lifetime energy produced; and in that regard, the solar plants in the pipeline are ONE-HALF a power plant and NOT the DISHONEST EXAGGERATION of 43.

The good thing about science is that it is true, whether or not you believe in it.
--Neil deGrasse Tyson

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