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The duck curve is heavily misunderstood.

The repositioning of panels to capture more morning and evening light is a real thing. At the theoretical extreme it can make the PV output a square wave.

But, that actually makes the duck curve worse, since the duck curve is about the gradient of that switchover.

But the duck curve has never really been an actual problem so it's kind of academic. And if it was we have solutions to it.




The gradient is one issue, the other is sending wholesale prices to zero for extended periods most days. That messes with the economy of baseline power generation especially nuclear.


Yes, I suppose cheap energy can be seen as a problem if you're an energy seller, not a buyer or user.


Buyers will eventually face a related issue.

To simplify if nuclear/geothermal or whatever was 10c/kWh if sold 24/7 but if wholesale prices are 1c for 8 hours a day then base load generation needs to make up 8x9c = 72c over the other 16 hours. Now prices would hypothetically jump from 10c for those 16 hours to 14.5c for those 16 hours.

It should still be a net savings for the average consumer, but if your business model is based on cheap electricity at 10am to 4am that might flip to 10am to 4pm.




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