These platforms are also increasingly capable of providing ancillary services to the local utility such as spinning reserve, load-following regulation, and intermittency management for wind and solar energy.

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Moreover, it could do so reliably and that means wind power could be used for what is known in the jargon as base-load power supply.

ECONOMIST: Power transmission

Google is testing a fleet of plug-in hybrids and software that would turn them into load-balancing tools for utilities flooded with variable power from wind and solar generators.

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Because geothermal produces consistent, base-load power--it doesn't depend on the wind blowing or the sun shining--utilities will pay up to three times more for geothermal electricity than for electricity from an intermittent source, like wind.

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