Dive Summary:

• If U.S. utilities close all coal plants, a quarter of nuclear reactors, reduce natural-gas plants, and move to wind and solar by 2050, utilities will boost grid reliability, surplus energy, and savings -- a new report by the Synapse Energy Economics, Inc. finds.
• Regional power generators can meet demand in 99.4 % of hours and have surplus power to export in 8.6% of all hours.
• With renewables, utilities stand to save $83 billion over the next 40 years.

From the press release:
"This study shows that the U.S. electricity grid could integrate and balance many times the current level of renewables with no additional reliability issues. Recent improvements in both renewable technologies themselves and in the technologies that are used to control and balance the grid have been proceeding at a rapid pace, and the incentives and rewards for success in this area continue to drive substantial progress.”