Anyone who knows anything about electricity knows that the “Age of Renewables” is really going to be an Age of Natural Gas. It better be, at least. Otherwise, we’re not going to have much electricity.

Windmills and solar plants generating base-load power are little more than a nuisance to electrical-grid operators. They’re very difficult to incorporate because they’re intermittent and unpredictable. It’s like trying to walk a high wire and having somebody shake the wire.

In Southwestern climates, where the sun shines strong and steady, rooftop solar panels will play an important role in meeting peak demands. This is because the sun is strongest just when it’s needed — on hot summer afternoons when air conditioning drives electrical consumption to its peaks.

Wind, however, comes and goes. It’s hard to predict for more than a few hours in advance — an unpredictability aggravated by the physics of windmills. Electrical output varies with the cube of wind speed.

There’s a simple solution, however — couple wind and solar with natural gas turbines. These are basically jet engines bolted to the ground. They don’t boil water so they can be started and stopped in just a few seconds. It’s a very expensive and inefficient way to generate electricity but good for short-term output. Most utilities have “peakers” that sit around all year waiting to meet those few hours during the summer when utilities strain to meet peak demands.

So the solution to wind and solar’s intermittency is to put a natural-gas turbine next to each windmill and solar panel. They can even be hooked up by computer. Then every time the wind dies down or the sun goes behind a cloud, the gas turbine can be fired up. That way consistent voltage balance can be maintained. (If voltage on the grid varies by more than 5 percent it can either cause blackouts or damage electrical equipment.

And so this item from Desert Hot Springs, California:

Developers of a planned 800-megawatt natural gas electric generating project in Desert Hot Springs announced today they are moving ahead now that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation clearing one of the final roadblocks to the project.
The CPV Sentinel Power Project will supply electricity at times of peak summer demand to complement renewable energy projects and helps protect the Los Angeles region against blackouts. CPV Sentinel will provide an essential energy backstop for the region’s homes, schools and hospitals when reliable power is needed most.
The region of California surrounding CPV Sentinel is a wind generation-intensive area — with 600 megawatts of operational wind power and 150 megawatts under development. Because of the intermittent nature of wind power, CPV Sentinel will complement nearby wind farms and support California’s Renewable Energy Portfolio requirement.

What a great idea! Let’s build a lot of natural-gas plants, surround them with windmills and call it “renewable energy.” No wonder T. Boone Pickens is on board. He owns a lot of natural gas.

– William Tucker is author of Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Power Will Lead the Green Revolution and End America’s Energy Odyssey.