"Besides being economically non-viable, the environmental effects are not so green either."

No they are not. The damage being done to the Australian environment by foreign-owned wind and solar operators is evidence of that. It is madness to claim that climate change is affecting the environment while ruining the same environment with windmills and solar panels.

The ultra-polluting side effects of present level 'Green Energy' are well documented & exposed.
Lithium batteries & wind mills are topping the range in least benefit from the most production pollution !
My guess is that Lithium batteries will be a thing of the past before long, apparently, solid state batteries are being focussed on now. The term 'Renewable Energy' is misinterpreted by most & confused with perpetual energy. Coal & oil would be no problem energy providers if only used on a need basis. As with everything else, people are over-using for either straight-out greed or insipid frivolities ! Simply summed-up, stupidity is what causes pollution !

The author of this article, Charles Hemmings, provides us with a fairly rudimentary analysis of the some of the basic issues associated with the transition away from fossil fuel generated electricity.

Topics such as "free" energy, comparative economics, intermittency, storage and environmental effects have been talking points for decades.

Perhaps with an interest in business the author could have addressed the quantitative analysis of why so many energy companies are investing in these alternative energy sources.

The real contradiction here appears to be between the author's qualitative assessment and the energy sectors' quantitative reality.

Quite obviously someone else must pay WTF? - Not Again's electricity bill, or he could not make the statement above.

Agree with most of this.

And fossil fuels are no longer cheap but among the dearest on the planet! Thanks to the war in Ukraine.

Nobody will even contemplate setting a manufacturing industry here based on fossil fuel sourced power or battery or pumped hydro backed renewables. Totally economically unviable!

This is the economic rubbish you get when ideological imperatives replace logics rites/common sense!

Only nuclear remains affordable and we could build our own if we replaced the airheads in Canberra with folk with still functioning cerebral cortices.

China has perfected MSR thorium and should asked to provide/sell us a few that we could operate via facilitated and funded local co-ops, allowed to compete for your energy dollar!

And that my friends is how you do energy that supports local/nation building industry, particularly self defence industries, needed now as never before.

Only the worthless and seriously overpaid, gormless head buriers in Canberra refuse to open their eyes and remove the ideological blinkers! Where nuclear is a name that cannot be said or heard!

If these morons want to cut their own economic throats, they shouldn't expect the nation or industry to follow suit!

Small Modular reactors can be placed where needed and supported by far less vulnerable micro grids. That come with far less transmission and distribution losses! Totalling 75% currently and losses that we the mug consumer pays for!

What would you give for energy that retails for less than 3 cents PKWH and still returns a handsome profit! I kid you not!

The above energy provision scenario is one that will do it! No two ways about it!
Alan B.

WTF?

Hasbeen says:
"Quite obviously someone else must pay WTF? - Not Again's electricity bill ...."

After an initial investment, my solar electrical setup paid for itself after about 3 years and has, to date, given me over another 7 years worth of no electrical bills.