Businesses, even renewable energy businesses delivering cheap power from the sun and the wind to households, need to turn in a profit to continue doing it. And to turn in a profit, these companies need customers capable of paying what this energy—plus the infrastructure that transports it to them—costs. Generation installations are cheap, Gill says, but they are not the only part of a grid involving renewables.

“It is not the p/kWh of wind, solar, or hydro that is the limiting factor, nor does it come down the mixture of wind, solar, energy storage and fuel-based power to deliver secure and reliable power,” he told Oilprice. “It is the fact that the cost of deploying and installing the electricity infrastructure is too high relative to the revenue potential of the customers.”

Read more: Oilprice