[joak]

Solar+wind(+energy storage) needs a lot more materials and land to produce the same amount of energy.

So the footprint of fusion would be a lot smaller.

Also for the same reason deployment would be faster allowing a faster phase out of fossil fuels.

[pfdietz]

Solar and wind can be deployed very quickly, and can be deployed today. Fusion will be available somewhere between "decades from now" and "never".

[stevenhuang]

A tired response, and a false choice at that.

Deploying solar and wind does not preclude continued research and development into alternative energy production methods.

[pfdietz]

It's a direct rebuttal to the false statement "Also for the same reason deployment would be faster allowing a faster phase out of fossil fuels."

Fossil fuels had better be phased out soon, and fusion cannot be available in that time.

IMO, the prospects of fusion reaching a practical state are so remote that even the current level of funding on it is difficult to justify. There are fundamental engineering constraints that render it inferior to fission -- and fission is now going extinct itself, being too expensive.