Coal is so un-pc. But it can’t be beat as a fuel. It really bothers me to drive out through the Great Plains and see all those stupid windmills. Without huge taxpayer funded subsidies, they wouldn’t be viable. The same with solar. Plus, you have to keep conventional capacity on standby for when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining.
I have access to wind generation data for the Midwest plains area - total numbers. It varies from around 2000 MW to around 12,000 MW. That’s a 6:1 difference. And when the wind isn’t blowing, as you noted, fossil fuels have to make up the difference. So, you have to build a significant amount of redundant generation to back up any wind generation you have.
Not very cost effective in most areas.