The real coup will happen when energy storage catches up with wind/solar production. The biggest problem with wind/solar, imho, is that they don't map well to how the electrical grid works. Power is produced by the sun shining and the wind blowing, whether or not that matches consumption. The doesn't well match the baseline + peak load model that currently drives the grid (and maps well to highly stable sources like nuclear and coal).<p>Once storage becomes common and cheap, the grid can be stabilized. Take advantage of cheap production (sun is shining, wind is blowing) and store the surplus, then feed the stored surplus back into the grid when the plants aren't producing. It's a whole different model, one that can support highly optimized computerized pricing and arbitrage. It will maximize the performance cycles of solar/wind.