It is time to rethink our electrical energy supply systems

The day of the huge thermal generator, feeding monstrous transformation and transmission systems, is past. Even hydro generation, once thought to be benign, is showing its shortcomings as head ponds silt up, wildlife is disrupted, water is mispriced and misallocated, whole populations are displaced, and it all becomes a political football. Physics, geography, climate, and simple arithmetic show clearly that solar, wind, and other renewables will forever be a small component of total energy supply, considering the true, unsubsidized cost of such things as energy storage media. And no, the wind does not blow more strongly at night; it blows when its energy source, the sun, is up.