Wind is NEVER going to scale well. Solar, well there’s ways to mitigate its own variability but until science finds a way to make it work in the dark there’s always going to be a need for baseload. Not to say that there isn’t a place for them; I think they’re both a big part of the solution. I find it hard to see them topping, say, 40% of the total load.
Nuclear is excellent for baseload. It’s EXTREMELY scalable and output can be varied at the drop of a hat. The worst disasters—Fukushima and Chernobyl—were in old plants with clear design flaws (and in the case of Chernobyl the possibly suicidal behavior of the control crew). New designs use MUCH more of the fuel and leave truly miniscule amounts of waste compared to legacy designs.
Finally, we need a smarter grid. We need to be able to crank people’s water heaters to max when there’s too much load. We need to be able to crank AC and EV car chargers down when there’s too much demand. Just having that flexibility would make a massive difference.
