Where renewable electricity is concerned, how costly is "too costly"?

Present day electricity is a bargain. It frees mankind from a host of dirty, debilitating occupations—epitomized by the now endangered occupation of legger. Correctly applied, electricity would make a most excellent paramount energy carrier for a post-carbon world. It is, however, only an energy carrier and not a source of energy, the preeminent source for its generation being bargain-priced fossil carbon. But when, in less than a century, that is gone, electricity is a good bet to cost markedly more while being still a bargain. This paper once again shows that mankind's energy needs can be met by (i) renewable solar generation of electricity buffered by (ii) massive electricity storage and (iii) a robust distribution grid. The time available for making this switch from fossil carbon to solar is at best a century and possibly as little as fifty years. - Highlights: ► Per hour, man can deliver only 0.2 kWh of work but earn 100 kWh of electricity. ► Exhaustion of fossil carbon could revert him to muscle power in only a century. ► Absent rapid mobilization, OECD-level lifestyles may soon disappear.