I read the book before the numbers it cites were decades out of date. And even then, it made a pretty good case for renewables in the parts of the globe where most people live.
Once you update it with current figures I'm assuming it can only make a stronger case. So are you just using the old figures and pretending those haven't changed?
That's like trying to model the next iPhones specs from first principles with specs from the last century.
Well it won't have a very big HDD because all that spinning rust will really drain the AA batteries.
edit to add, but his basic strategy is sound:
> The principal problem is that carbon pollution is not priced correctly.
And there is no confidence that it’s going to be priced correctly in the
future. When I say “correctly,” I mean that the price of emitting carbon
dioxide should be big enough such that every running coal power station
has carbon capture technology fitted to it.
> Solving climate change is a complex topic, but in a single crude brush-
stroke, here is the solution: the price of carbon dioxide must be such that
people stop burning coal without capture
The UK basically did this. Note that it was found by the market that replacing the coal plants entirely was cheaper than adding carbon capture to them.
edit 2:
> The most promising of these options, in terms of scale, is switching on
and off the power demand of electric-vehicle charging. 30 million cars,
with 40 kWh of associated batteries each (some of which might be ex-
changeable batteries sitting in filling stations) adds up to 1200 GWh. If
freight delivery were electrified too then the total storage capacity would
be bigger still.
> There is thus a beautiful match between wind power and electric vehicles.
If we ramp up electric vehicles at the same time as ramping up wind
power, roughly 3000 new vehicles for every 3 MW wind turbine, and if we
ensure that the charging systems for the vehicles are smart, this synergy
would go a long way to solving the problem of wind fluctuations.
The UK also did this.
I'm baffled at the books continued popularly with renewable "debunkers". The book clearly described the problems and solutions. The main skepticism was aimed at politicians being able to overcome the political power of fossil fuel lobbiest and do something sensible.
The only explanation is a willful disregard for the new knowledge we've acquired in the intervening time period, much of which the author guesses correctly but we now know for a fact.