Read the excerpt below and identify the central thesis:
"While renewable energy deployment has expanded exponentially across ASEAN nations, intermittent solar and wind availability continues to strain legacy power grids. Without substantial capital investment into grid-scale battery storage and regional interconnection, decarbonization targets will remain out of reach."
What is the primary argument advanced by the author?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: C. Grid modernization and energy storage are essential for renewable transition
- Step 1: Analyze the logical progression of the excerpt: the author acknowledges renewable growth but highlights intermittent supply and grid strain.
- Step 2: The concluding conditional sentence directly states the thesis: without battery storage and regional interconnectivity, decarbonization goals cannot succeed. Thus, modernizing storage and grids is indispensable.
Answer
Grid modernization and energy storage are essential for renewable transition.
Why not the others: 'ASEAN economies should abandon ambitious carbon neutrality targets' contradicts the author's supportive premise on decarbonization; 'Solar and wind infrastructure currently generates excessive electricity' misinterprets intermittency as overproduction; 'Legacy power grids are already fully capable of handling clean power' directly contradicts the author's explicit statement that legacy grids are strained.
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