well the real answer is to simply lower the people's standard of living, cut out the air conditioning, shut off their computers and TVs, and refrigerators, force everyone to go back to living in caves, and then you can run the world off of renewables.    There is no practical method of using renewable as a complete replacement for conventional power.  In the future?  Maybe.  But right now, it's just a waste of money, which is why UK people spend twice as much on power as the US people.,(reply>), @David Keenan What are you talking about....?   In the 1990s 10% of UKs power was renewables.  Today it's barely 15%, and a good portion of that is ironically biofuel in the form of burning wood, or making bio-methane, from wood and plants.   What do you think coal is?   It's plants and wood that died a long time ago.  But you consider one 'clean' and the other 'dirty', which to me is odd.   Regardless, it's a bit of a stretch to claim that you abandoned coal, when to this day 30% of your power comes from coal, and as much as stretch to say you made up the shortage of power with renewables, when 30% of the power formerly from coal, is being produced by natural gas.  Another 20% from nuclear power.   And from the 90s to today, UK power production has increased from 250 TwH, to over 350 Twh, and renewable energy sources barely increased to 5% of total energy production.  That means most of the shortage from coal power was made up with other non-renewables.  I realize there are some goofy statists that make it appear tons of power comes from renewables, but it simply isn't true.   Lastly, as far as not seeing the cost going up, again, what are you talking about?   In 2010, the cost for power was averaging 13 Euro Cents per KwH.  Today it's 22 Euro Cents.  Do you know how much I pay for electricity here in Ohio, in the US?  I pay 7 Euro Cents per KwH.  And not only do I pay a much lower cost for power, I pay much less taxes than you do, which your tax money goes to subsidize the much higher cost of renewable power.  So even that 22 Euro Cents isn't even the true cost you are paying.   So with all due respect, I don't know what you are talking about.,(reply>), No, here in the UK we just decided to abandon coal and make up for the shortfall with renewables. We've done it, and electricity prices haven't risen that much. Generally people in the UK are prepared to pay more for things that improve the environment. Our Right Wing politicians would be considered as Lefties by American standards.