A big public investment in an electricity superhighway would benefit most volatile renewables, since the broader the geographical spread and range of types of sources, the steadier the supply tends to be. In the US, the Great Lakes, northern Great Plains and southern Great Planes are distinct wind resources and the movement of weather systems means that variations in distinct wind resources can partially offset each other.

When the range of the electricity superhighway network includes solar resource of sufficient quality for utility grade concentrated solar thermal day peak plants and a substantial distributed portfolio of dammed hydro, its even better, because of the complementarity of a combined wind and solar portfolio when set against typical consumption patterns.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

It's slightly less sensitive in Europe (wind is more widely dispersed), but it is a bottleneck in some places, and most of the current investment in grids is meant to accommodate the growth of wind production. In particular, transmission lines from the regions near the North Sea to the rest of the continent are necessary. So far this is done on a country by country basis, mostly.

Wind power