Thanks for a comprehensive article, you are obviously well studied and well informed on the Hinkley plant.
But on "Renewables", I show elsewhere why this is a very confusing mis-term, it should not exist, there is no such thing as renewable energy, to me the term is just sales pitch.
Solar is fundamentall very different from wind, since this energy represents Joules / KWhrs added to Earth, whilst Joules yielded from wind have to result in Joules subtracted from Earth.
Using solar is a process of creation whiilst using wind is process of destruction. Each has multipliers which multiply the initial effects, we don't know what the ultimate consequence is, of taking too much power out of the wind, but for sure it has to be a cost to the planet, and the energy we waste in its conversion have to add to the heat impulse of the planet.
Cost to the planet has to manifest ultimately as temperature rise. Temperature rise is a measure of destruction. The reverse applies to creation.
Its not accurate to say solar, the only creative energy source, is not reliable, the energy of the sun is the most reliable source of energy we can imagine, its just that the clouds, and the planet get in the way of collecting it effectively. But they do this in a way that is predictable, and we have many ways to store it, including hydrogen, which doubles up as fuel which functionally replaces the fuel used by all transportation, even aerospace.
It might be true in the case of batteries that the cost of storage capacity is proportional to capacity, because in the case of batteries there are strict relationships between Joules of energy and mass of materials, depending on chemistry, but in the case of hydrogen its all down to how effectvely we can pressurise it, liquefy it, incorporate it in other materials, as necessary to store it in a way that it is readily usable. The relationship between energy capacity of stored hydrogen, and materials mass of storage, is heavily influencable by development.
My own analysis of the global energy problem, since it became apparent to me as already a long practicing systems engineer on related PhD candidate work, seven years ago, has led me to understanding the solution we will be forced to move to, by nature, is domestic and community solar hydrogen.
We will be incentivised to do this by solar indexed stimulus, which I say a lot more about elsewhere.
It's radical, but unavoidable, as far as I can tell. Watch what happens to the value of money until it is done.
You seem to be oriented to the UK, This article covers a little of it for the case of the UK:
