"The problem we have in Australia is when we talk renewable energy we are talking wind and solar only - low value, expensive, unreliable, high capital cost, land hungry, intermittent energy."

Solar is unreliable and land hungy? Is the author aware of just how much of this continent is uninhabitable desert? Pave it all with solar cells! Use the excess power to run the hydroelectric dams backwards so as to create an overnight energy reservoir. Problem solved.