Aiden,

We already seem to be reaching limits with respect to intermittent electricity supply. The US Energy Information Administration may be reaching the same conclusion. It chose Steve Kean from Kinder Morgan (a pipeline company) as its keynote speaker at its July 2016 Annual Conference. He made the following statements about renewable energy.

"The contribution of renewables is often overstated. An intermittent source is not equal in value to a dispatchable one and, absent transformative technologiy breakthrough's, 100% renewable energy generation is not feasible".

Few people have stopped to realise that intermittent electricity isn’t worth very much. It may even have negative value, when the cost of all of the adjustments needed to make it useful are considered.

Cheers
Geoff

Geoff,
If it already seems to you that we're reaching the limits with respect to intermittent electricity supply then there is something seriously wrong with your perception. Though I'm not surprised that the CEO of an oil pipeline company would want to give the impression otherwise.

But consider more carefully what he's saying. it should be obvious that an intermittent source is not as financially valuable as a dispatchable one of the same power, or even of the same total energy output, because the dispatchable one can produce electricity when the intermittent one can't. That doesn't change the fact that the electricity the intermittent one produces is as valuable as that which the dispatchable one produces at the same time.

And we're so far away from 100% renewable energy generation that it's a complete red herring that 100% renewable energy generation is not feasible without transformative technology breakthroughs (which are being developed anyway). The difficulty of reaching 100% renewable energy is not a credible excuse for the failure to reach 50%.

It comes down to cost:
The cost of the plant and storage has to be multiplied by the number
of predicted consecutive windless overcast days plus one.
So the storage has to be recharged in the first sunny day.
So hope it is sunny all day.

All that makes it impossible.

Only when I see the last litre of crude oil being auctioned off on E-Bay for some ridiculous amount, that is when I believe the movers & shakers will have realised that fossil fuels have had their day.

We have a 'majority'...ha hah ha government, here in Australia that still subscribes to the Wall Street model in vogue, a government full of fossils with their heads planted firmly in their fundamental orifice. Removing subsidies (what a great idea to get innovation = "Jobs and Growth" no doubt) & disbanding agencies that had proven track records.

Steaming full speed ahead onto the reef of popular opinion, only to see its romance with Adani Coal was a folly all too late...meanwhile those zillions of dollars fleeced off the good folks to fund an investigation into the Hole In the Ozone Layer...just to find it was a natural anomaly anyway. Where have they gone - oh another monetary black hole like the other zillions from the mining boom gone like a fart in a cyclone when the idea of sovereign wealth fund could have done wonders for our economy. So who was at the helm ? you guessed it, for the most it was our friends in the LNP or Liquidated National Prosperity Party.

Anyone believing Australia has been lucky riding out the GFC because of fiscal policies should remind themselves of the ALP/LNP/Greens platforms on renewable energy technology at the next general election and take a good long look at themselves.