[dennisdamenace]

Keep in mind capacity does not equal generation.

A solar facility with 1MW of capacity will generate 1MW at it it’s peak moment, maybe, on a good day. Given the lat, weather and season, maybe you will get 8MW hours total for the day. Whereas a 1MW gas plant could produce 24MW hours for the day.

In other words you could have 100MW of renewable capacity and have 0 generation if it is too cold, dark or calm.

[the8472]

Other plants don't operate at 100% capacity either due to variable demand, the cost of spinning them up and down, river water being too warm for cooling, cost of fuels, being displaced by renewables etc.

Sure, nighttime imposes a hard cap on the capacity factor of solar, but solar is not the only renewable power source. Natural gas plants may have a much higher theoretical limit, but in practice they are limited by more expensive fuel.