Nuclear, coal, whatever – it’s going to be down some of the time. Utility grid operators deal with abrupt changes in supply and demand all the time.
Right now when the wind is up grid managers can cut back on natural gas, coal or hydro. Later we’ll likely have lots of storage to fill in the gaps, but we’re a long way from needing storage right now. There’s plenty fossil fuel generation to shut off. And there are promising battery technologies moving into the manufacturing phase. Zinc-air and sodium-ion batteries look promising for grid use. They use low cost materials and are easy to manufacture.

Nuclear is expensive, takes a long time to build, and we have no idea what to do with the millions of tons of hazardous waste we’ve got now.

Here’s what National Geographic tells us about the huge amount of problematic ‘stuff’ we already have. Gifts for those who follow us….
“What’s to be done with 52,000 tons (47,000 metric tons) of dangerously radioactive spent fuel from commercial and defense nuclear reactors? With 91 million gallons (345 million liters) of high-level waste left over from plutonium processing, scores of tons of plutonium, more than half a million
tons of depleted uranium, millions of cubic feet of contaminated tools,
metal scraps, clothing, oils, solvents, and other waste? And with some 265
million tons (240 million metric tons) of tailings from milling uranium
ore—less than half stabilized—littering landscapes? ”

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0207/feature1/index.html

It drops because utility companies won’t have to call on gas peaker plants or buy expensive power from further away.

And it drops because they can use more cheap wind power.

(Peak, not peek…..)