The Inflation Reduction Act provides tens of billions of dollars in subsidies for wind and solar in the U.S. However, as seen below, gas-fired generation is still growing faster than those two sources combined. Note that in 2023, wind generation fell despite the addition of 6 gigawatts of capacity. Why? The wind didn’t blow.

In large, populous nations, the complete reliance on these renewables would require what we are still missing: either mass-scale, long-term (days to weeks) electricity storage that would back up intermittent electricity generation, or extensive grids of high-voltage lines to transmit electricity across time zones and from sunny and windy regions to

Solar energy has fluctuated from zero to a peak of 46GW, but the variation is even more dramatic as a % of total energy production: from zero to more than 50% of the total .

How to deal with this huge fluctuation in production? What will happen if that fluctuation increases even more, following plans for additional wind and solar parks?

There are a