It's a good question. The short answer is that although the daily peak in California tends to be around 7pm, the annual peak is more like 3pm-5pm due to air conditioning on hot summer days. So solar, at our current margins, actually does supply peak demand and thereby reduce capex needed for gas peakers.
(And annual peak demand is the correct timeframe to use, since our system targets reliability on the scale of years not days.)
(And annual peak demand is the correct timeframe to use, since our system targets reliability on the scale of years not days.)
Today's peak: http://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/index.html?fbclid=I...
Annual peaks: https://www.caiso.com/documents/californiaisopeakloadhistory...
I wrote a detailed version of this comment later in another thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28436432