Environment & Energy
In reply to the discussion: More than 68% of New European Electricity Capacity Came From Wind and Solar in 2011 [View all]XemaSab
(60,212 posts)How are nuclear and coal the same?
They're both baseload, so for baseload generation you can have nuclear, coal, or both.
If a restaurant serves steak, lobster, and surf & turf, it doesn't mean that steak and lobster are the same thing, but that seems to be what you're arguing.
What is the same is the fact that right now, wind power needs either large hydro or natural gas alongside it.
If we're going to go with the restaurant analogy, if you're ordering pasta you're going to get noodles and you're going to get sauce. The noodles and the sauce are ingredients in the same dish. It might be spaghetti noodles with red sauce or it might be angel hair with a butter and garlic sauce, but either way you can't have the one without the other in a pasta dish.