[NameGoesHere]

Originally Posted by sneaker

Every plant operator wants his plant to run at full power all the time. What's the point?
I get what you are trying to say, but you are making up your very own definition of baseload here.

And yes, the power won't go out if we produce more energy than we use, but if the sun shines and the wind blows that doesn't mean we can just save the corresponding amount of coal, just a fraction. So even graphs showing that wind or solar energy fed this or that percentage of electricity into our grids are highly misleading.

This is...actually...not true...? Peakers are called peakers because their fuel costs are dominant (as opposed to their upfront costs). Intermediates have fuel, operating, and investment costs at about the same level. If the grid has enough power there may be no benefit in running the peaker, and in some cases the intermediate. Why else would there be any other designation besides baseload?

I'm not sure where I said anything that is along the lines of "we should replace coal with renewables", merely that there is a balancing mechanism...

As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that I stated it is currently not feasible to run an efficient grid on pure renewables...

Edit: First Google result I got

Peaker plants generally run only during peak periods when utilities will pay higher prices for electricity because it is more expensive to produce electricity by burning natural gas.

I'm not really sure what to say? Not all plants want to run at full power all of the time...

Edit 2: So I read further down on the Wiki article, and it does say how designation is determined.

Economics

Power plants are designated baseload based on their low cost generation, efficiency and safety at rated output power levels. Baseload power plants do not change production to match power consumption demands since it is more economical to operate them at constant production levels. Use of higher cost combined-cycle plants or combustion turbines is thus minimized, and these plants can be cycled up and down to match more rapid fluctuations in consumption. Baseload generators, such as nuclear and coal, often have very high fixed costs, high plant load factor and very low marginal costs. On the other hand, peak load generators, such as natural gas, have low fixed costs, low plant load factor and high marginal costs.[5] Typically these plants are large and provide a majority of the power used by a grid. Thus, they are more effective when used continuously to cover the power baseload required by the grid.

Combine that with feed-in tariff, and it should be enough to understand why renewables are de facto baseload.