A little knowledge is sometimes worse than none at all - especially when it comes to engineering.

It is difficult to explain control systems theory, the concept of stability in electric power systems, and what the constituent parts of power electronics are in a physical sense (rectifiers, inverters, converters, cycloconverters). 

I think a very large amount of discourse on renewables is based on trust (and many people abuse this trust). However, I will attempt to describe one of the reasons why some people still think we need large (coal/gas fired) generators and why they’ve been wrong for some time.

In the past, (electrical) Grid stability was enforced by the dynamics of (very large and many) rotating mechanical components in traditional generators; given that power electronics (in say solar and batteries) have no mechanical components, you can see where people might get confused. 

For simplicity let’s ignore wind turbines (while they do spin, they are intermittent and require power electronics between the mechanical components and grid connection).

In the past, large coal-fired plants with large synchronous turbine generators were the only available grid forming elements, and if we added solar, wind etc through inverters - these would be grid following.

However, modern inverters (for wind, solar, batteries etc) can now emulate all the benefits from large synchronous machines through robust power electronics. Frankly, it is relatively simple given modern, digital controllers are programmable, and are much more flexible.

Modern grid forming inverters, assume they have responsibility to form and maintain the grid, can control voltage and frequency, can black start a power system (following a black out), and they can co-exist with their old cousins the grid following inverters.

Even diesel generators used traditionally for a black start (taking a matter of seconds, even minutes) pale in comparison to the (near instantaneous) synchronisation of black start using batteries.

The best food reviews are written by food critics that deeply understand complex flavours and wine pairing. In the same way, we should be selective as to who we give air time in complex areas.