With some personal interest and research I've judged for two decades, (before the IPCC managed to reach consensus) that the potential economic performance of wind and solar is constantly under-estimated and this belief, (admittedly partly intuitive) has year after year been proven true. Even while lacking investment programs of trillions of dollars into R&D which would have been entirely sensible and affordable, proven by greater amounts spent on conflict in the name of security.
I find it beyond justification or excuse how major official forecasters can year after year be so vision-less and pessimistic. We can make floating deep-sea wind farms - and floating solar. We can make better and better batteries and storage facilities as soon as dispatchability and curtailment are close to being a significant cost in a handful of places. Cost of renewable energy has cruised downward with tepid incentives provided by governments. It can plummet within years of serious international public investment in R&D.
There's really no excuse for persistently pessimistic predictions like this [1], from major and professional industry forecasters -
[1] http://www.mining.com/web/charts-energy-experts-hilariously-...