It appears that Andrew Christie was using bad math to calculate replacing Diablo Canyon Power Plant (“Diablo, replaced,” Nov. 16). He is comparing power storage with generating power. Generating power is measured by the hour, day, or year. Battery storage doesn’t generate any power. It is storing from what trickles in from renewables that isn’t being used at the time. To compare, you would have to get the generating power from solar and wind by the hour. Then you would have to calculate for the power not being generated when the sun isn’t shining or there is not enough wind. Generated power isn’t measured by storage and is constant from Diablo. Let’s not compare apples to oranges to prove a point.
Daniel Hemenway
Los Osos
This article appears in Nov 23 – Dec 3, 2023.
Kudos to Daniel for pointing out Andrew Christie’s naive crackpot gaslighting about battery capability and the electric grid. Christie’s attempt to groom flying monkeys with bad math should be an embarrassment to the Sierra Club but it is probably celebrated by his minions.