Where are the old sailing ships that Cook and others used? Oh, they are outdated for sailing but not for electricity!
In the absence of mandates directing grid managers to take chaotic wind or solar power ahead of conventional power and/or massive subsidies directed to retailers encouraging them to take it and/or heavy fines imposed on them if they refuse to, there is simply no commercial market for power which can only be generated occasionally, in ideal wind conditions and/or when the sun is shining, on cloudless days.
Back in 1983 the American Wind Industry Association claimed that wind power would be “competitive and self-supporting on a national level by the end of the decade if assisted by tax credits and augmented by federally sponsored R&D”. That was 36 years ago. And there was no lack of assistance in the form of tax credits and federally sponsored R&D, along with a whole bunch of other punitive mandates and targets designed to cripple conventional generators and favour chaotically intermittent wind power.
Now…
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