Don't believe 'em when they say intermittancy is a problem

Scientists of the University of Kassel in Germany prove that the entire country can be powered by renewables only. They connected biogas, wind and solar power in a distributed way and show it can deliver both baseloads and peakloads.

There's a video too ".

Half of nuclear power stations closed for repairs

Perhaps, when we next hear a protagonist for more nuke power dissing wind power for its intermittancy, we should recall this. "Almost half Britain's nuclear power stations are currently shut down for repairs or maintenance, the Nuclear Industry Association said today. "

And then there is the difficulty of actually making sure they're safe when there is a pay squeeze on inspectors, leading to a shortage. "The government is so short of nuclear inspectors that the programme of new reactors being planned may have to be put on hold" (full article here)
Half of nuclear power stations closed for repairs | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited:

UK could be 100% green leccy by 2027...

... but is there the will to take on powerful lobbies to make it possible? George Monbiot comments; "a new study by the Centre for Alternative Technology takes this even further. It is due to be published next week, but I have been allowed a preview. It is remarkable in two respects: it suggests that by 2027 we could produce 100% of our electricity without the use of fossil fuels or nuclear power, and that we could do so while almost tripling its supply: our heating systems (using electricity to drive heat pumps) and our transport systems could be mostly powered by it. It relies on a great expansion of electricity storage: building new hydroelectric reservoirs into which water can be pumped when electricity is abundant, constructing giant vanadium flow batteries and linking electric cars up to the grid when they are parked, using their batteries to meet fluctuations in demand. It contains some optimistic technical assumptions, but also a very pessimistic one: that the UK relies entirely on its own energy supplies. If the German proposal were to be combined with these ideas, we could begin to see how we might reliably move towards a world without fossil fuels."
The German proposal is for a European+Iceland+North America electricity grid ...
Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Stop doing the CBI's bidding, and we could be fossil fuel free in 20 years: