Fascinating new EIA data
South Dakota produced 110% of its electricity demand with just Wind-Water-Solar for the full year Oct 1 '23-Sep 30 '24
77.5% Wind 30.1% Water 2.2% Solar
Also produced 16.8% gas, 11.7% coal
So SD produced 138% of demand, exporting 38%
https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/WWSBook/Countries100Pct.pdf
It’s certainly good, but I think it’d be better if we had some additional clean way of covering our base load. Like nuclear.
Renewables + storage (batteries, etc.) can be more than enough. And you can get that in a much lower cost, at a much faster time than nuclear.
https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/NuclearVsWWS.pdf
The same person has also published studies and plans for 100% renewables in the USA and in the world.
USA
Grid reliability in the USA with 100% renewables
World
All of which he updates every couple of years.