I'm not saying it's not a good project, but using unrealistic expectations to critique other v.low carbon generation is entirely irrational as the net result inevitably ends up being more fossil fuels burnt overall. Just as fear of nuclear has left western europe in the state of an aging/retired fleet of reactors and still figuring out how to build replacements efficiently (while Japan can go from start to generation in 5 years at the moment), or worse in the specific case of Germany, shutting down reactors prematurely, and emitting countless more Mt of CO2 as a result. It's not just about the next 10-15 years but decades beyond that, net zero is only a stepping stone.
As has been pointed out previously, options for generation methods need to be considered as an overall solution in the manner that the national grid has done, not as individual marginal rates as sadly appears to be the case in most of the academic literature bun fights on the topic.
well yes, the 'just 20min for suits to get between birmingham and london' is a classic on the bingo card as well, both for being factually incorrect (30-40min) and also entirely missing the point of HS2 which, from the start, has been about the best way to provide additional capacity for multiple parts of the clogged WCML, MML & ECML. Of course thanks to the current government's shortsighted nonsense, the latter two are currently off that list and the net result is a win for the motor and roads lobbies.