The lowest power use each day is still as much as 60% of the peak. T
hat’s the base load at 3am, and solar panels and wind farms just can’t provide it. We can burn the odd $500 billion building hundreds of solar plants, but even then, we would have to go “medieval” for about 8 hours each night. Candles anyone?
The obvious solution is to globalize Daylight Savings Time and save our candles!
http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/franklin3.html
Amid all of the cries to save power, there is never any discussion about dimming the lights on Times Square, Hollywood and Vine or the Vegas strip to name a few.
Several years back the college where I worked, was on a save the planet kick and we were bombarded daily with “energy saving tips”. We replaced the lights with T-3 or CFL bulbs. We had a large Gym that the roof was lit all night long outside with dozens of powerful flood lights. Since the college was in a small town and no one would ever notice the flood lights or gym in the early morning hours except a few passing OTR Truck drivers, I suggested we shut the flood lights off after 11 PM and turn them on at dark the next day. Not a popular suggestion!!!