It could just be the additional 4% of water in the atmosphere along with La Nina weather patterns which would make it an infrequent event.  We should have a much better idea in a couple of years when the the next El Nino shows up.  If snowpack is huge during neutral and El Nino years then I’d expect more transmission rather than curtailment.

If it happens once every 5-10 years we’ll likely just let the turbines sit idle until river flow is down.

So the problem is an inadequate connection?  A larger wire needed?  Better connections to the wind farms?

Was this supposed to be a joke? The Pacific Intertie was built to move power from Bonneville to LA.

“94% of Americans think it is important for the nation to
develop and use solar energy. This was consistent across all political
party affiliations.80% of Americans agree that Congress should consider reallocating federal subsidies from fossil fuels to solar.Over half (51%) the country would choose to work in the solar industry if they were to start working in renewable energyNearly half (49%) of Americans considering solar for
their home or business plan to make a decision to adopt solar in less
than one yearNearly half (49%) of Americans are willing to pay more for clean, reliable solar energy

October 11, 2010 (Los Angeles) – On the eve of Solar Power
International, North America’s largest solar energy trade show, a new
national poll shows that the vast majority of Americans overwhelmingly
support development and funding of solar energy, and their support for
solar has remained consistent over the last three years. These and other
findings were reported today in the 2010 SCHOTT Solar Barometer(TM), a
nationally representative survey conducted by independent polling firm
Kelton Research.”

http://www.seia.org/cs/news_detail?pressrelease.id=1061

We’re at the point where solar power is cheaper than gas peaker power in sunny places.  Conservatives are very concerned about things that cost them money.  As the price of solar continues to drop that opposition will wash away.

Solar is only months away from $1/watt.  That means $2/watt installed in 5kW and larger arrays.  And that means ~$0.10/kWh electricity. 

And that ten cents will not increase as will the cost of natural gas plant electricity once we burn through this temporary glut of shale gas and the price climbs back to where it should be.

A marketable commodity.

If climate change is going to bring us higher snowpack in the Pacific Northwest on a regular basis then it may be a good idea to hook Bonneville to the Pacific Intertie and sell some of that power southward.

And before long the Western grid will be tied to the Eastern and Texas grids, so that power can be sold to anywhere in the lower 48 and most of Canada, even parts of Mexico. Somewhere on the continent there’s a coal plant that can shut down or gas turbines that can stop spinning while all that nice fuel-free wind power gets used.

If France and the US  a lot of nuclear was built with the assumption that massive heat waves wouldn’t hit and cooling water would be available.

“On July 8, 2010, as the temperature in downtown Decatur, Alabama climbed to a sweltering 98°F, operators at the Browns Ferry
nuclear power plant a few miles outside of town realized they had only
one option to avoid violating their environmental permit: turn down the
reactors.

For days, the Tennessee Valley Authority
(TVA), which owns the nuclear plant, had kept a watchful eye on the
rising mercury, knowing that more heat outside could spell trouble
inside the facility. When the Tennessee River, whose adjacent waters are
used to cool the reactors, finally hit 90°F and forced Browns Ferry to
run at only half of their regular power output, the TVA hoped the hot
spell would last just a few days.

Eight weeks of unrelenting heat later, the plant was still running at half its capacity”

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/in-tennessee-heat-waves-frustrate-nuclear-power/

“France is expecting to have an epic heat wave this summer, which, due to
a combination of political and environmental factors, will have some
serious repercussions for the political scene in Paris.

Spring
2011 has been exceptionally hot in France. In fact, has been the hottest
in 100 years. Furthermore, it has been the driest spring in the last 50
years and therefore this summer is expected to be one of the hottest on
record and that includes the 2005 and 2003 heat waves which were quite
serious for France. In 2003 heat wave in France was exceptionally
severe, with the French minister of health issuing a report that said
that about 15,000 people may have died as result of increased
temperatures…. particularly important for France during a drought is because 24 of its
58 nuclear reactors do not have cooling towers and purely depend on the
flow of river water to cool the reactor cores. What this means is that
if the level of water in rivers drops, it means that some of the
reactors may have to be shut down especially those on the Rhone River in
southwest France, where temperatures are expected to be particularly
high due to its geographical location.”

i actually thought i put something in there along those lines, must have been another post or just thought about it but didn’t do so

A mix of renewables along with storage and dispatchable would work just fine. 

That said, geothermal, biomass and run of the river hydro are the sorts of power the old folks call ‘baseload’.