Solar and Wind Will Drive Natural Gas Up

A second important market likely to strengthen in near future years is electric power generation. That market is turning strongly away from coal in the U.S. and Europe and toward alternatives like solar and wind which are non-base load sources, meaning they work during some days and some hours a lot better than others. When they don’t work, the generating plants must have “peaking capacity” to bring them quickly up to nameplate capacity. Natural gas is the way to obtain short term bursts of generating capacity.

An example of this was described in the Oil & Gas Journal (4/7/08) in an article about the enormous new additions to wind power being constructed in Texas and Oklahoma as follows (p.19):

“Between Amarillo and Midland, capacity factors can rise of fall by 60% within 12 hrs. So by 2011, when Texas has about 10,000 Mw of installed wind capacity, power generation might rise or fall by 6,000 Mw in half a day, requiring the sudden start-up or short-down of 15 - 20 peaking plants to balance the load. “

Are wind and solar key parts of America’s coming energy revolution? If so, count on natural gas as well.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/83143-solar-and-wind-will-drive-natural-gas-up

Sun or wind but coal, natural gas, oil, etc. is finite, it will eventually run out, maybe not in our lifetime, and it's all getting harder to find even with modern technology

you have that full load flux of 60%. Add in solar to these same wind farms and the flux would be even less.

Intermittent wind + intermittent gas peakers = shut down of gas/coal base-load plants.

Add in solar PV/thermal electric and the need for summertime gas peakers is diminished even more...

Part of the equation is that wind installations are outstripping other renewables right now and be expected to coninue doing so for probable 5 more years. Initially wind will displace more natural gas than anything else. As penetration increases we can expect to see a decline in coal that will probably be accompanied by an upswing in use of natural gas. As more diverse and greater renewable capacity is brought online (and depending on the relative costs of various storage strategies versus on-demand nat gas generation), we could see the need for natural gas start to decline again.
I think we will maintain natural gas generation for a long time to come. However that should be seen in the context of two things; reduced fuel consumption via Compressed Air Energy Storage systems, and the use carbon neutral bio-methane as a fuel.