In the 1950s we went boldly for renewables with storage (the Snowy Scheme and hydroelectricity in general), and flirted with nuclear, closely watching the first commercial nuclear power plant - Calder Hall in England. But - unfortunately - we lost our nerve on nuclear. Probably after early accidents like the Windscale fire in 1957.
Renewables, for much of the day, are the cheapest energy source. By their very nature they render 1920s coal power tech unviable. The problem twenty years ago was governments didn't think of renewables with storage. Just renewables. The storage side of things is being solved on a commercial basis now, but still needs another ten years to flow through. So we need to supplement renewables till then.
If only we hadn't lost our nerve in the 1950s, when we were building the infrastructure of our nation, and developed both renewables and nuclear.
