This chart highlights the challenge of solar’s inherent intermittency.

On a perfectly sunny day, power generation is in a bell-shaped curve that tracks the rise and fall of the sun.

However, on a cloudy day, the power generated is highly variable and largely diminished. This generation variability increases the instability of the grid, as it’s harder to meet demand with variable supply.

The world needs reliable forms of power generation. A cloudy day should not affect the amount of power supply available to a civilization.

Solar farms are thus built in incredibly sunny regions. However, adding more and more solar capacity to these regions doesn’t address the fact that power is lost as it travels, so you can’t have power generated in California sent to Maine.

Solar is interesting, but I struggle with it as an alternative solution to reliable energy sources, like oil, natural gas, and nuclear.