You are correct, I did mean fusion not fission. And I agree we will need more than just renewables for the short term until we can bring down our energy usage. All that electricity demand from electric cars will decline enormously when our society and infrastructure changes to locally based economies, where travel is reduced and be undertaken by public transport. Presently, most people need to drive to work, sometimes ridiculous distances, and even drive to shops, theatres, cinemas, sports events and other social activities. When this constant commuting becomes needless the demand for energy will drop. I also take issue with your assertion that we need an enormous grid to carry all this power around. In case you haven’t noticed there is a growing trend in fitting solar panels to houses to generate and use power locally. This private generation doesn’t even use the grid if possible. Even large companies are getting in on the act by fitting solar to the roofs of their factories and offices (a bit slowly I admit). So the need to a massive grid should not be necessary as we become more and more independant of it. We need to get away from the idea that our electricity has to be supplied by some massive power plant sited miles away and built at huge investment cost that has to be repaid in electricity charges. It’s this change in approach that big business is frightened of. When people start becoming independent of the energy supply companies they not only lose money but also lose the power to dictate how that power is generated. This loss of profit is what is driving the climate change denial lobbying by the rich and powerful. They don’t want to see their profits and power base eroded and lose control to small locally based companies or individuals.

I also disagree with the point about needing huge batteries for storage to reduce the fluctuations in supply. There are a number of other energy storage schemes being trialed and used. One approach that has been successful for many decades in the UK is the use of pumped hydro-electric storage (PHES) in Wales. The Dinorwig Power Station can store cheap energy produced at night (or day) by low marginal cost plant and then generate during times of peak demand, so displacing low efficiency plant during peak demand periods (from Wiki-pedia). Similar energy storage schemes are being investigated and used, such as Thermal Energy Storage.

There may be an arguement against solar panels on the cost of production, in terms of carbon debt but photovoltaic solar is not the only game in town. Many solar solutions convert sunlight into heat, either at low values for heating houses or by creating solar furnaces for heating liquids up to produce super-heating steam; for traditional electricity production by turbines driving generators.

Don’t be blinkered by the constant mantra of the big energy providers, that only they can provide electricity by building enormous power plants that feed the grid night and day. Many countries are now producing much of their electricity with a mix of renweables such as wind power, solar, hydro etc. Don’t believe the hype that only big energy will save the day; and sadly thorium powered power-plants sounds like more of the same.