The author merely repeats the current costs of renewable energy. He makes no argument that would support the statement that "they were never mean to sustain society." That's a huge leap.
A good book on this subject (despite several errors and gaps in honesty) is The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels.
While I agree that fossil fuels will and probably should rule the roost for quite a while, it's a bit extreme to suggest that we will never develop a cheaper, non-polluting form of energy. Tesla (Nikolai) thought we would.