"Over the last decade, energy experts repeatedly assured policymakers around the world that increasing the use of renewables, while shutting down nuclear plants, would make energy supplies more secure, while lowering prices. To make their case, experts pointed to radical declines in the price of solar panels, wind turbines, natural gas, and lithium batteries.

But those reassurances have come into question as natural gas prices have spiked around the world, resulting in street protests and contributing to inflation. 'The sudden slowdown in wind-driven electricity production off the coast of the U.K. in recent weeks whipsawed through regional energy markets,' reported the Wall Street Journal yesterday. 'Gas and coal-fired electricity plants were called in to make up the shortfall from wind.'

The crisis has shaken policymaker confidence in the rosy pronouncements by renewables advocates. High natural gas prices 'took a lot of people by surprise,' a senior energy economist at a leading analytics firm told the Wall Street Journal. 'If this were to happen in winter when we’ve got significantly higher demand, then that presents a real issue for system stability.'"