The goal is very noble and I'm all for it, but there is this problem that the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow, and electricity isn't infinitely transportable, nor easily stored.
There are serious hurdles to decoupling ourselves from coal, but none of them are insurmountable. At least not hypothetically. :)
One interesting idea I've heard in regards to storing electricity is using electric cars as batteries. Granted, this would require a massive retooling of our grid and our transportation system -- not to mention the question of where we will find all the resources to make so many batteries -- but it's still interesting.
What's troubling to me is all the sensationalism surrounding nuclear, which seems to suffer from lots of near-religious objections. Nuclear is dangerous but even in the worst scenarios (like the Fukushima Daiichi plant) the damage is far less onerous than the continued operation of coal plants.
all the batteries that we have ever build combined cannot store 10 minutes of the electricity that we currently use. We need order of magnitude breakthrough with batteries first.
Usually a hydro power plant is used as a "battery". When the demand is low, the electricity produced by wind/solar power plants is used to pump the water uphill. When the demand is high, the hydro power plant releases that water to produce energy.
Requiring 100% replacement/utility is not a useful position. If we want to reduce (notice I didn't say eliminate) use of fossil fuels, then we have to pursue a mix (including fossil fuels).
Edit: You didn't actually require 100%, but this edit is an easier correction than a correction.
Someone I know who runs a nonprofit related to helping remote fishing villages and the like in his Asian country, claims supercapacitors are less than 5 years away.
"If" that is true, then a time-shifting bank of such supercapacitors could presumably solve the very real issues you raise.
He is someone who works full time in researching alternative energy solutions for those fishing villages.
Wind or solar solutions that he specifies have to be rugged and easily maintained without access to fancy tools, and batteries can wear out quickly in high-temperature environments.
Somewhere the sun is shining and the wind is blowing. I can guarantee that Google will have at least one data center somewhere will one of these two cases will hold true.
One interesting idea I've heard in regards to storing electricity is using electric cars as batteries. Granted, this would require a massive retooling of our grid and our transportation system -- not to mention the question of where we will find all the resources to make so many batteries -- but it's still interesting.
What's troubling to me is all the sensationalism surrounding nuclear, which seems to suffer from lots of near-religious objections. Nuclear is dangerous but even in the worst scenarios (like the Fukushima Daiichi plant) the damage is far less onerous than the continued operation of coal plants.