Renewables are cheap at the margins, but they're not economically competitive if your goal is to support a massive growth of total electrical demand (either because you're a developing country that is growing rapidly, or first-world economy which is decarbonizing and electrifying industry and transportation).
Some governments will, sure, and perhaps a handful of large, wealthy cities in high latitudes or on small islands, but in general it's difficult to see why an investor would choose to invest in a fusion plant.
Yes, in theory, if you could convince the world to accept thousands of new fission plants, you could probably get the cost pretty low, and that low cost would be pretty close to the same outcome for fission. But, good luck with that! Fusion has a much better chance of actually achieving the theoretical long-term economics of fission.
The list goes on. The more you look, the worse it gets.
inverted_flag•9mo ago
avmich•9mo ago