Renewable energy ‘fundamentally too weak’ to provide grid power, says economist

Econometrix MD and senior economist Rob Jeffrey said on Wednesday that the “fundamental weaknesses” of renewable-energy sources currently precluded these projects from being able to provide affordable, reliable power to the national grid. Despite emphasising that all energy sources had costs and benefits, and noting that “no [energy source] was better than the other”, the economist told delegates at the Southern African Energy Efficiency Convention, in Johannesburg, that, if carbon costs were excluded, wind, nuclear and solar energy generation sources were considerably more expensive than coal-fired energy sources.