All this costs money, though,

But at least with wind, tidal, etc. it is money invested in providing clean, secure, necessary energy that does not contribute to global warming.  This actually helps the economy in the long run.  Perhaps the problem is that it does not serve as quite so grand a source of fees for the City as do financial scams.  But then at least one could not say that the capital had been destroyed by having been betrayed into hopelessly unproductive uses, as John Stuart Mill would have styled it.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."