Given the considerable lead times and competition with renewables conventional power stations don't seem to be a good investment. (johnquiggin.com)
The point about, say solar panels, is that they use a fraction of the energy used to build, run and decommission conventional power stations for the outputs. (ozziezehner.com)
A small surge can be accommodated by switching off conventional power station generators, to keep the overall supply to the grid the same. (newscientist.com)