Base bias

We all pay much heed to baseload power and the need to have some source catering to that need. But some people like David Mills believe baseload can be dispensed with. The eminent solar energy technology developer, has dreamed of creating a new model for an energy system that does away with the conventional design of massive baseload infrastructure. Using hourly data for energy use of the entire United States economy in 2006, Mills will demonstrate how it could have been powered almost exclusively by wind and solar.

The traditional paradigm of flatline baseload does not exist in Mills' scenario, but the replacement for baseload power is not another baseload, it’s a system of flexible and inflexible energy mechanisms based around wind and solar and other sources.

The first premise was that there was enough solar and wind that, in combination, could run the US economy. The second was that solar and wind would be connected with a new electricity transmission system, using high voltage direct current lines for the spine of the network, which will allow more flows and result in considerably reduced transmission losses.China is installing more HVDC lines than any other country in the world – looking to link coal plants with the Three Gorges dam and wind and solar from the north and west of the country!

Any opinions?