> "It’s the storage that’s the problem, not the transmission... Most plants are hard to spin up and down"
This is true for nuclear and some types of fossil-fuel power plants. But for hydro, all you have to do to vary the power output is adjust the amount of water running through the turbines. Plus, hydro plants that have their own storage lakes/dams have built-in storage: any water you're not using for generation can be saved in the lake for when it's needed.
(OK, some rivers have minimum flow requirements so that fish don't die and water can be used downstream etc...)
This is true for nuclear and some types of fossil-fuel power plants. But for hydro, all you have to do to vary the power output is adjust the amount of water running through the turbines. Plus, hydro plants that have their own storage lakes/dams have built-in storage: any water you're not using for generation can be saved in the lake for when it's needed.
(OK, some rivers have minimum flow requirements so that fish don't die and water can be used downstream etc...)