On Wednesday, 16 April 2014 07:16:10 UTC+2, Stephen Sprunk  wrote:   
   > On 14-Apr-14 13:17, bob wrote:   
   >    
   > > In a nuclear (or big steam) plant, the actual power output can be    
   > > reduced by throttling steam and dumping it straight to the condenser    
   > > rather than sending it through the turbine, but this is not really   
   > > an ideal way of running things.   
   >    
   > ... because you're essentially throwing away free money.   
      
   You are throwing away electricity you have already paid for.  However there   
   have been situations in Germany in the last couple of years where, due to   
   government guarantees to buy all solar and wind power, and the time taken to   
   bring coal plant online (to    
   meet the evening peak demand, when solar is not effective) that the market   
   price for wholesale electricity has actually hit zero.  Such events aren't   
   common enough for large scale storage projects to become economical, but as   
   the installed base of    
   renewables increases, that will change.   
      
   Robin   
      
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