We need an expensive miracle

Any notion that renewables can provide for all our requirements is a mischievous and reckless boast that will leave us in the dark, says Ian Fells

Two imperatives point to the urgent development of renewable energy: security of supply and controlling climate change.

Much the largest source of renewable energy is hydroelectric power, which provides 17% of world electricity (and 6% of world energy), about the same as nuclear power; both are CO2-free. All the other renewables – wind, wave, tidal, solar, biomass (which are either CO2-free or CO-neutral) – hardly feature in the statistics at the present time.
But engineers do know a great deal about renewable energy: first and foremost, it is expensive, and is only being developed commercially because of the provision of subsidies of various kinds. This amounted to