Cost of Firming Renewables
What is the cost to keep the power on when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow?
Lazard's LCOE+ report from April, 2023 provides some insight [1]. The cost of electricity includes transmission and generation. Looking just at generating power, the cost to firm intermittent renewables can more than double the costs. Further reductions in the costs of wind and solar on the ground have limited potential to drive electric costs down.
The main reason for this is that the peaking power plants that provide electricity on demand are seldom used [2], so the low capacity factor drives up costs per kwh. Batteries won't fix this. As the EASE - The European Association for Storage of Energy identifies, storage must grow exponentially to address an increasing fraction of renewables [3].
Fortunately, the sun always shines in space. A solar plant in space, wirelessly transferring power to Earth, can operate 24/7 and solve these problems on the ground.
