I think that any country using links like this ought to have emergency backup power systems. I think this is actually a reasonable use of coal and/or natural g

I think that any country using links like this ought to have emergency backup power systems. I think this is actually a reasonable use of coal and/or natural gas: keep the infrastructure maintained and have it ready to take over if there's an emergency, but otherwise it sits idle. In most cases you wouldn't even have to build new plants, you'd just keep the old ones around that were displaced by renewables. (Though over time you may need to build additional plants as electric usage grows.) Ideally you'd have some sort of international agreement that any fossil fuels used would be subject to a high carbon tax, so there'd be less temptation to just declare an emergency for no reason. But that would require more international cooperation on climate than what we've seen so far.