I miss Rush too. I bought a radio that I could turn on when I worked in my backyard just to hear Rush. He was not only great at commenting on current news but he taught me so much about American history. One day he talked about why so many people started to go to college after the great depression. Turns out that teachers were the one group of people who did not lose their jobs. So parents sent their kids to college for that reason (many at great expense). Remember that many colleges have now become universities but they were once called teaching colleges. Hello dittoheads!
The latest EIA publication on Levelized Cost is so complicated. Those economists have gone wild. They have now added battery storage. What is interesting is that they project the costs into the future and take account of two types of tax credits. There will be a phase out of credits over time. But what I find concerning is that the renewables will be built and added to the grid before these credits expire and we will be stuck with them. Another thing I noticed is how they have managed to make it look how renewables now compete nuclear and fossils fuels (which was not the case in the past). source: https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/pdf/electricity_generation.pdf
I agree with you about Levelized Cost but it is what is used to consider cost by economists (they like their formulas). So even using that formula shows the extra cost of wind and solar over time. Area is not considered in any calculation. We had this problem with solar in New Jersey. The solar warriors wanted to build solar farms but we have very limited open space in the state. We also have a very strong Preserve Farmland group that put up strong opposition. So then the state wanted to put them on brownfields (disserted manufacturing sites). Turns out that would be an environmental disaster. We have many superfund sites in this state. So that's when we came up with installing solar panels on telephone poles. We put up a lot but stopped for some reason.
There is another bad aspect to wind turbines on land - their noise.
Also what you say about area is harder to compare when considering offshore wind. .
A simple way to compare energy sources is their capacity factor. A capacity factor describes how intensely a fleet of generators is run. It is a ratio of a fleet's actual generation to its maximum potential generation (according to the Energy Information Agency, EIA). For example nuclear is 80-90%. Coal is 50-60%. Wind is 30-40%. Solar is about 20% Another measure on cost is what is called Levelized Cost. It takes into account all the costs (initial investment and running costs). Conventional coal is 94.8 $/MWh and offshore wind is 243.2. The EIA is a great source for some of the items you listed.
I have been stocking up on distilled water, cans of pea soup, and cat food for the kitties.