Energy consumption goes up and down throughout the day, but the "base load" is the minimum amount, even at the lowest point in the day. So nuclear power is good for providing this "base" because it's consistent and always running.

The issue is that renewables sometimes output so much electricity that, especially when it's sunny, the grid makes *way* too much electricity. The electricity consumption of the grid minus renewables is called the "residual load", and it very very often goes NEGATIVE.

This means that the concept of "base load" is not really relevant, because there is no consistent base. And when the residual load goes negative, the wholesale price of electricity goes negative as well.

Last year the Netherlands had negative wholesale electricity prices for about 7% of the year, and that amount is only going to grow.

You can't afford to run a nuclear reactor when electricity prices are negative, but you also can't shut it down every day either.

This was always my understanding of how renewables make the concept of "base load" irrelevant, again, as a person with a literal degree in Electrical Engineering.

But I was gaslit by so many people that I felt the need to research the current situation again today.

This could just be people using out of date information, but I suspect this is anti-renewables propaganda. Otherwise I don't know why so many people would even know what a "base load" is.

@notjustbikes have not seen the video yet for context

Can't it be a misunderstanding that they mean grid momentum and not baseload and get the two confused?

@IcyPalm @notjustbikes I suspect it’s far more simple than that. Your average person likely has zero knowledge of the grid frequency or why it’s important. They don’t know about the duck curve. Transmission is how the electricity gets from their local power plant to their house.

What they do know:
* Solar turns the daylight into electricity
* We need electricity 24/7
* The sun doesn’t shine 24/7
* Batteries don’t last forever (and what if there’s a cloudy week, if …, if …, etc.)
* Therefore, we need a base load that gets us through the night and cloudy days. (What’s a base load? Idk I heard it)
* Nuclear is relatively clean and the scare factor was semi-artificially created by the fossil fuel industry, therefore it must be really good because they’re really bad

It’s the liberal equivalent of “why don’t we just drill more?”

I don’t think it’s some giant conspiracy.