Good points on transmission...we have to increase grid capacity for any new renewables to work effectively, and transmission lines are both expensive and difficult to permit since no one wants a 345,000 volt tower in their backyard. Deregulation of the power industry in the 90's has made it even more difficult to build because the transmission company is now separate from the generating company, which is separate from the grid operator, etc. With a vertically integrated utility, like we had in the past, the power company simply decided what was needed and built it, now it is a private enterprise which is looking first to protect operating margins, not necessarily looking to build the most "efficient" system.
Regarding the intermittency problem with renewables, wind is very difficult to integrate into an ISO (Independent System Operator). An ISO refers to a third party system operator who tells all the generation station in a region when to operate and how much power to make. The ISO is responsible for balancing load and supply and makes operating decisions, usually on a 5-second interval, to ensure no voltage drops across the system. They have to take into account everything, including what transmission constraints are in place, what units have indicated they are "available" and last but not least, who is the least expensive unit to operate. All these parameters to into a "dispatch" model and signals are sent to the generators on an incremental basis telling them how much power to make. Wind and Solar can't respond to dispatch signals so they are considered "must run" and that infrequency and lack of responsiveness make the ISO have to compensate and work harder to balance the system.
Wind, solar, and hydro will "always" dispatch because it is the cheapest marginal cost to generate, unless there is a over supply situation or a tranmission problem getting the power to the load centers. Following these guys, Nuclear will run, then coal, and lastly natural gas fired CTs or combustion turbines. Nuclear requires many days to ramp up and down, so you don't just call 'em up and say you need more power. They are scheduled days in advance and do NOT shut down unless there is an emergency. Coal plants similarly take hours to ramp up and down. They're not as slow to respond as Nuclear, but it takes a long time to build up heat in the boilers, and similarly to bleed off heat. Gas turbines are the whipping boys of the power industry. Just like an airplane engine, they can throttle up and down very quickly and are generally considered to be "load followers" in that they are the suspension of the system, absorbing the "bumps" in demand by throttling up and down on a seconds notice.
As you can imagine, operating a grid is a very, very, very complex task, and requires the coordination of many different components. Wind and Solar can never be more than a small percentage of this system because of their intermittency and the inherent problem with balancing supply and demand I mentioned earlier. You "MUST" have load following capacity for 30-40% of your total load to keep the system reliable, and for now, that will remain natural gas. I suppose you could use biofuels like ethanol in a gas turbine instead of natural gas, but the volume required would be tremendous and as was pointed out earlier, people are not going to stand for doubling food prices to pay for corn-based ethanol in those quantities.
Power "storage" is another concept that is already in use and growing in popularity. There are hydro plants that "pump" water up to a higher elevation during off-peak periods for use during high demand hours. There are also utilities actually installing huge battery banks in neighborhoods to shave "peak" demand. These are literally just enormous lead-acid wet-cell battery banks capable of generating 1-2 MW when needed, just like your RV but on a much larger scale.
More later.
Regarding the intermittency problem with renewables, wind is very difficult to integrate into an ISO (Independent System Operator). An ISO refers to a third party system operator who tells all the generation station in a region when to operate and how much power to make. The ISO is responsible for balancing load and supply and makes operating decisions, usually on a 5-second interval, to ensure no voltage drops across the system. They have to take into account everything, including what transmission constraints are in place, what units have indicated they are "available" and last but not least, who is the least expensive unit to operate. All these parameters to into a "dispatch" model and signals are sent to the generators on an incremental basis telling them how much power to make. Wind and Solar can't respond to dispatch signals so they are considered "must run" and that infrequency and lack of responsiveness make the ISO have to compensate and work harder to balance the system.
Wind, solar, and hydro will "always" dispatch because it is the cheapest marginal cost to generate, unless there is a over supply situation or a tranmission problem getting the power to the load centers. Following these guys, Nuclear will run, then coal, and lastly natural gas fired CTs or combustion turbines. Nuclear requires many days to ramp up and down, so you don't just call 'em up and say you need more power. They are scheduled days in advance and do NOT shut down unless there is an emergency. Coal plants similarly take hours to ramp up and down. They're not as slow to respond as Nuclear, but it takes a long time to build up heat in the boilers, and similarly to bleed off heat. Gas turbines are the whipping boys of the power industry. Just like an airplane engine, they can throttle up and down very quickly and are generally considered to be "load followers" in that they are the suspension of the system, absorbing the "bumps" in demand by throttling up and down on a seconds notice.
As you can imagine, operating a grid is a very, very, very complex task, and requires the coordination of many different components. Wind and Solar can never be more than a small percentage of this system because of their intermittency and the inherent problem with balancing supply and demand I mentioned earlier. You "MUST" have load following capacity for 30-40% of your total load to keep the system reliable, and for now, that will remain natural gas. I suppose you could use biofuels like ethanol in a gas turbine instead of natural gas, but the volume required would be tremendous and as was pointed out earlier, people are not going to stand for doubling food prices to pay for corn-based ethanol in those quantities.
Power "storage" is another concept that is already in use and growing in popularity. There are hydro plants that "pump" water up to a higher elevation during off-peak periods for use during high demand hours. There are also utilities actually installing huge battery banks in neighborhoods to shave "peak" demand. These are literally just enormous lead-acid wet-cell battery banks capable of generating 1-2 MW when needed, just like your RV but on a much larger scale.
More later.
Ironically, the morning of August 14, 2003, I was in the simulator running scenarios related to loss of grid events. 
