Stuart Theobald’s enthusiasm for renewable energy (Insert, October 31) is understandable but over-optimistic. In particular, he ignores its externalities. Once intermittent sources such as wind and solar power reach perhaps 20% of overall generation capacity, it gets increasingly expensive to incorporate them into a supply system. One of the largest costs is for standby generators that fill in when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine — about 75% of the time for most renewables. But no one will build and operate generators "just in case" they are needed. They have to be paid for on a "take-or-pay" basis. Those costs should be accounted as part of the renewable system, which immediately makes renewables less competitive — and dirtier. Much continues to be said about energy storage as the next big thing, as it has been for the past two decades. According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, "pumped hydro storage is the only widely deployed storage technology...
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