Utility scale battery storage doesn't work. One 35 MW project in Austrailia caught fire. Another one in California cost $400 million to store 400 MW for 4 hours. It isn't working right and runs at 25% capacity. Remember, at 4 hours and one minute it's useless. Wind and solar run about one third of the time. Batteries will not get cities through the other two thirds. Renewables need a lot of land. In the densly populated areas there isn't enough land. So people say put them offshore but those cost 4 times as much.
There sattelite solar is being explored. It's a great solution if it can be made to work. However, the wind, terrestial solar battery solution is an unfortunate illusion because so many people think it will work. I se all kinds of ideas but they are unbelievably expsensive.
In the US renewables are heavily subsidized. There isn't enough money in the world to completely get rid of natural gas.
Saying utility scale storage doesn’t work is a red herring. First of all we are in the infancy of these technologies and we have a long way before they are mature. Talking about current difficulties is ignoring that technology advances.
Watch “Downton Abbey” and see how they talk about telephones, cars and electricity. They would find our world all but magical.
Also, we have something called a power grid that allows for electricity to be sent over a long distance so your comments about densely populated areas are irrelevant.
Also, carbon takes lot of space: the powerplants, the oil and gad fields,pipelines, coal mines, etc.
As for subsidies, carbon and nuclear are also subsidized.
Some day carbon sources are going to be no longer economically viable.
We need to look at the next technology instead of making faster steam engines or breeding faster horses.
