Portugal's green electricity transition

I think what clouds the economic issues is the book keeping.   The thing about fossil fuels is that many of the costs are externalized or selectively not accounted for, where solar and wind etc., are costed to the farthing.   Makes for deceptive comparassons, with fossil fuels the benefactor of those, for lack of a less precise term, lies.

For example, the costs of early mortality due to air pollution from coal fired plants alone should be tacked onto the cost of hydro, but they aren't-- or, if not, the reduction of early mortality due to air pollution from coal fired plants should be deducted from the costs of renewable energy when it's assessed against fossil fuels.

That's just one small example, there's probably scores, if not hundreds more.