Quote:
Originally Posted by JSH
The solution to the duck curve is energy storage. It also deals with the "unreliable waiter" problem.
It would also make sense that if a gas plant was operated at 35% of nameplate capacity instead of 75% is would last longer than the original design life.
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Storage is the only solution, and the total system cost needs to be competitive AND have zero reliance on fossil fuel plants as a backup. If fossil fuel plants need to be maintained for certain situations, then the overall system cost is more than simply having fossil fuel generation because it's adding onto infrastructure and not displacing it.
I'm no expert, but usually it's the cold starts that cause the bulk of wear on an ICE. If you maintained steady continuous operation of an ICE, it would last a very long time. Then there's age and environmental degradation that occurs with time and has less to do with use. I assume the lifetime of a powerplant has less to do with utilization and more to do with age, especially given that stuff simply becomes obsolete over time.