About renewable energy, refer to
this thread and
this post there. The bottom line is, wind/solar cannot work, even in principle, no matter how long they work on it. The reason is simple: the energy output will always drop to almost-zero periodically, no matter how much capacity you have installed (because the wind isn't always blowing and the sun isn't always shining). But of course you need to design an energy system so that it always delivers the minimum energy for the maximum demand. Therefore,
you will always need as much base load backup power as you would need without renewables. That is, you can't replace even a single traditional power plant with renewables!! If you shut down a coal power plant for example and don't replace it with another base-load capable power plant (nuclear or gas...), you simply lose that capacity, no matter how many windmills you build.