Peter Martin today slams the coal lobby:
The truth is more complicated. The worst kind of generators to run alongside wind turbines are the coal-fired ones. They’re extraordinarily bad at switching on and off, which is what’s needed to fill the gaps when the wind’s not running. The best kind are hydro plants, and combined-cycle gas turbine plants. Moving to wind necessarily means closing redundant coal-fired generators, which is needed anyway in order to cut carbon emissions.
It doesn’t mean that at all for combined-cycle gas turbine or hydro plants.
