We're almost there with PV Solar price/performance.

[kandrathe]

The way I see it is the main problem at the moment still is that politics are not willing to support change as fast as it should happen. One country doesn't want to 'spend'more because it is scared it loses it edge over other countries. And the fossil fuel lobbies are much to powerful of course.

I think it is a problem to depend on politics or in other words, government to force the change. People can and will oppose government coercion like that. Wouldn't it be the more prudent course for governments to "invest" their efforts in enabling the economics to be right. That is to say, promote beneficial research, to champion example projects, etc. Much of it is chicken and egg stuff, but you can imagine that without a NASA, there might not be a SpaceX. But also, that with NASA out of the space launch industry, it paves the way for the need for a SpaceX. It is the same with solar, or wind, or fusion. The government can do much to pave the way for the economics to catch ahold, but at some point they need to know when to fold up the socialist tent and get out of the way.

Another consideration is that as more, and more of the generation and consumption goes to renewable sources, the cheaper fossil fuels will get making leaving them an increasingly harder case to make. Imagine a Europe and USA fully using renewable energy, with the rest of the developing world inheriting our carbon footprint. The point being, that we need to ensure the path forward is economically accessible for everyone, not just the USA and Europeans.

There are so many ways of storing energy for when there is no sun or wind. I was at a solar energy fair a few weeks ago, and there were already several commercial options for storing.

There is not enough being built. I watched a Q&A with Elon Musk at MIT this week. He was talking about their big battery building plant. They need to build a battery manufacturing facility that will equal the combined battery building capacity of the rest of the world just to meet their demand for new auto batteries. To meet the needs of a fully electric car world, they will need at least 20 more plants just as large.

Solar, and wind power storage is yet another unfulfilled need for capacity.