Is the U.S. Lagging Behind?

It is likely directly related to NSF funding cuts!

Intermittency, lack of storage, and lack of interconnection with the grid are good reasons why "renewables" are, and will remain, small sources of power. Wind is available mostly at night, when power is cheap because demand is low and the "spinning reserve" is also available. Last year 25 TWh of wind was curtailed (wasted). Solar is not available at night or on many days. Building transmission lines to link distant wind and solar projects to the grid costs $2 million a mile, not including the litigation costs of environmental opposition.

The dream of wind and solar baseload is not grounded in reality. Maybe the highest and best use for wind and solar, at least in the near term, will be in some other job, like cracking the emissions of coal plants.

For the foreseeable future, power generation for the world's accelerating demand will have to rely principally on coal, gas, nuclear, and hydro. That's just a fact, and no amount of wishing or scolding will change that. New ideas may change this assessment, but where are they?

Sorry to upset your perfect 10% GA/Post ration, but GA! Or at least good comment.

could you please link to the source?