ALTRAV, on one hand you correctly diss renewables for their shortcomings (presumably on the main grid) while on the other you propose everyone go off grid with renewables.

Dear old Aidan continues banging on about storage dreams leading to 100% renewables while our competitors choose economically viable options.

The 'bastard scumbag' baseload providers are running with the unchanged overheads, including asset maintenance and depreciation, staffing, insurance etc, while burning a less fuel as renewables come on grid. In order to meet overheads and to profit their prices, per kilowatt-hour, must go higher and higher.

The only thing that can remove these scumbags is the arrival of viable storage. Germany, with all its advantages including Green political power and will, and extension cords into French nuclear and Nordic hydro, can't economically and viably employ storage so chooses to build new coal-plants instead. Surely there's a message for even the most myopic of renewablista ideologues to absorb?

The average Joe knows little of the above and is swallowing the line that more renewables means lower power prices, simply because sunshine and wind appear free. If Labor gets in, you can put down your glasses on our economic progress. There will be the blind pursuit of renewables and the continued ban on nuclear.

PS http://environmentalprogress.org/big-news/2018/10/25/open-letter-to-heads-of-state-of-the-g-20-from-scientists-and-scholars-on-nuclear-for-climate-change?fbclid=IwAR2ZPWYzUCGEaiv1tinpCQnns0lORFYn4KcALxXtAwDWq0vF-QC2rB5LBtw#disqus_thread

ChristinaMac1 Quote "renewable energy - which is becoming ever more effectively and cheaply developed"

Which in no way means it is reliable and take into account most if not all electronic and other products are build with the idea of planned obsolescence they are designed to need replacing or expensive maintenance after a predetermined time.

And are very heavily subsidized.

Aidan,

Solar power + batteries or wind + batteries are still far more expensive than nuclear.

Cheap flexibility from storage, demand-side response and distributed renewable energy generation poses a “huge threat” to the nuclear industry https://utilityweek.co.uk/cheap-chips-flexibility-poses-huge-threat-nuclear/ 12/10/2018

Florida and Georgia - renewables and energy efficiency cheaper than new nuclear plants http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/energy-efficiency-renewable-0565.html

The UK nuclear industry has that sinking feeling! Officially the UK nuclear industry is going ahead with building a new generation of power stations. But it can’t find anyone to pay for them.

With renewable electricity becoming much cheaper than new nuclear power in the UK - Cool down nuclear plan because renewables are better bet,UK ministers told https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jul/10/nuclear-renewables-are-better-bet-ministers-told

Washington DC pushes 100% renewable energy bill https://reneweconomy.com.au/washington-dc-pushes-100-renewable-energy-bill-48151/

Nobody can disagree that when the sun shines brightly or the wind blows strongly, the cost of renewable energy per kWh is low. Once firming (storage or carbon fuelled) is added to the equation to deal with intermittency and to make renewables as reliable as thermally generated sources, however, and the multiplicity of subsidies removed, the true state of affairs is woeful.

A plane went down in Indonesia yesterday killing more people than nuclear has in its existence, but not more than wind and solar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_accidents

Even tho' some of us will die, we fly to get to places. We need nuclear energy to mitigate climate change, even if some of us may die, because renewables wont get us there and will likely kill more people in the attempt.

http://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1118311/csr-turbine-fire-kills-two-workers-inner-mongolia
http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/21483f/two_engineers_hug_before_they_died_atop_a_fiery/