This is a key insight. Keeping gas plants around for emergencies but ONLY running them for emergencies allows us to run high renewables systems reliably NOW. No new tech breakthroughs needed, but we will need to change incentives and business models.
Ahem.
Aha, in 2017!
In 2016!
In 2015!
This is not a new insight, but some still fail to understand it. Keep some gas around, and incentivize it to ONLY run during emergencies. We'd need to pay enough for good maintenance and proof of availability, but we can do this with better institutional/incentive design.
Running a high renewables system with some gas plants around for emergencies means we can easily get to 90+% renewables generation in an average year in most places with little to no technical innovation. More innovation will of course make this even easier!
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