Ain't gunna happen anytime soon.
The world is fully geared to use fossil fuels especially hydrocarbon based fuels due to their efficiency.
Supplement maybe but replace, not in my or my childrens lifetime.
Exactly.
No matter how much they rabble on about it and jump up and down about C02, Big biz is not going to throw away billions in infrastructure simply to accommodate some ideal..... UNLESS it's profitable. Until the world runs out of FF, they will be doing all they can to keep using it so they don't have to build their infrastructures they have over the last 100 years again.
The reality is that it is recognised right NOW unreliables CANNOT power the planet but the fairy dust believers needing a cause to champion keep ignoring that. The fact gubbermints recognise this, already means the clock is ticking on the whole scam the same as when when cigarette companies who were in denial till they could be no longer, this unreliables thing will be exposed and the fraud it is.
As you say and I have said all along, Supplemental, great. Put panels on all the rooftops so the power stations can be wound back and make practical and effective savings there if you want but having unreliables as the main power source, Not in the lifetime of anyone on the planet right now that's for sure. I still don't get why the greenwashed are in favour of destroying environments and landscapes with Vast solar farms instead of putting panels on rooftops here the power can be used without the further blight and cost of transmitting the power hundereds or thousands of KM?.
I have to laugh at all this simplistic crap about how much land panels would take to power the world.
It's exactly like claiming you can run a car on water. Sure you can but the problems, inefficiency and cost and everything else makes it IMPRACTICAL to do so.
The people going on about this panel area are purposefully being ignorant to the problems and logistics of distribution of the power and also the storage. While I think some are talking about representative areas needed, some seem to actually think there can be one central area like a dessert that can supply all the power needed to the world.
They also base their calculations on the most perfect areas like Desserts and Places like Oz ignoring all the vast areas of europe where land is at a premium and due to the weather conditions would take at least 6x more panels to generate a given amount of power in the ideal sunny areas. No point glossing the numbers over and quoting average sunlight radiation, the only way to plan is for the LOWEST overcast winters days because there is no way to store enough power for a country or a continent especially for a day let alone a week.
IF people want to play the area game, they should do it country by country taking into account their power needs, weather conditions, allowing to have adequate generation in winter which means another 6-20 times increase over summer insolation and then work out where all these panels could be put to provide power for that region. Not a lot of Desserts and suitable waste land in Europe to put even 50 Sq Km of panels which would need to be one of many such blights on the landscape and environment to provide the needed all year round power. Base the solar generation area based on insolation of a dessert and put that in Europe and you are going to have a LOT of people freezing to death in winter.... or forgetting all about electric and going to fossil fuel defeating the purpose of the whole stupid suggestion in the first place.