Aiden "Marginally profitable investments" mate tell me where I can get better than three percent? Have a look there are now Government bonds where you pay to invest. Please do not ask me to explain that, I cannot, it is a complete mystery to me.
My point is that there is no world wide conspiracy to stop solar and wind. There is no great electric engine the big car companies bought to stop it replacing the internal combustion engine.
I think you underestimate market power.

Well Aiden, I know that a cascade type collapse should never happen
but they have happened. Perhaps with computer network control it is
far less likely simply because the computer can act very quickly and
never goes to the toilet. NSW had a non internet control system and
was all microwave linked so was immune to a lot of problems.

Germany's largest supplier, RWE, is on the brink of bankruptcy
and will either just shut down or the government will step in.
It is literally too big to fail. Its troubles are all caused by the
large percentage of alternate power, ie solar & wind, and its "redundant"
coal power plants.
So Denmark and Sth Australia are not the only victims of green enthusiasm.

Aidan,

"But you seem to be making the extraordinary claim that it's so high that selling the electricity it generates at the normal wholesale price, the operating profit over twenty years would not even cover the infrastructure cost."

Exactly, by now it should be dawning on you. For example, the running costs of nuclear reactors is so low that the cost of power is almost entirely paying off the capital cost.

The green dream is actually coming true. They always wanted to use this scam to drive us back to the dark ages.

Peasants driving cars, eating nice food, living in nice homes & even flying off for holidays, for god's sake, they could never abide such goings on. It was always their objective to restrict such pleasures to themselves & a few other elite.

I wonder if any of them are smart enough to realise that when the lights go out, those lifts in those inner city high rise apartments all stop?

Shadow,

"Exactly, by now it should be dawning on you. For example, the running costs of nuclear reactors is so low that the cost of power is almost entirely paying off the capital cost."

You're claiming that nuclear is also failing to pay off the capital cost?

Where did you get the idea that the business case for nuclear and renewables is so weak?
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Bazz,

With decent infrastructure a cascade collapse will not happen. The USA had underinvested in infrastructure for decades and paid the price.

Are you sure RWE's financial problems aren't caused by the cost of decommissioning its nuclear plants?
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Hasbeen,

There may be a few old hippies who want to drive us back to the dark ages, but most greens are very very strongly against that.

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JBowyer,

You can get better returns on the share market, and ISTR most of the Industry Superfunds are doing better than that at the moment.

I'm not claiming there's a worldwide conspiracy to stop solar and wind (at least not a big one, but some fossil fuel companies do run misinformation campaigns for that purpose). But market power is a constant and at the moment the markets aren't displaying any enthusiasm. Government action is needed to encourage them, but so far the governments haven't done anywhere near enough, and the measures they have implemented have been inefficient.

Aidan,

I said nothing of the sort, but I will forgive your lapse in understanding and judgement.

However, if there is direct competition between coal fired generation and nuclear, nuclear wouldn't pay for itself even though it is far more competitive than molten salt solar.

Without a feed in tariff, wind, solar and nuclear are not viable options.