"But from that very starting point, it's clear that there will always be better ways to generate electricity than fusion: solar and wind combined with batteries

"But from that very starting point, it's clear that there will always be better ways to generate electricity than fusion: solar and wind combined with batteries." I am 100% for renewable energies and would not wait for fusion - but I am very hesistant to use the word always here. If there is a breakthrough in handling the plasma - and recent developements indicate that this might be possible - it could make fusion very cheap. So when you have a cheap, compact and reliable energy source - most people would favor it over something unstable that takes a lot of space.