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Ed Could a city be run using only alternative energy sources?

You can also add Tasmania to the list. It generates all of its electricity using hydroelectric power.

Not quite. Tasmania is connected to the mainland grid.

To the OP, a city can be powered by solar power stations which heat a huge amount of salt during the day to allow round the clock generation. Someone earlier said that Seville is about to do this.

If you have deserts like Australia it is feasible to power the entire country using renewal energy, with wind power, tidal and biomass covering the short periods when solar can't do it on it's own. We won't do this, of course, as we have a massive amount of cheap coal. But we can, and all with existing technology.
 
That would still depend on baseline power... With solar you would have to use a reservoir however its form (battery, heat reservoir, etc...)

That's right, but it's entirely possible. The solar tower, which relies on a temperature differential between the top and the bottom of the tower, and will therefore operate all day and night, is another possibility.
 
Must be by undersea cables. Right? How many? How reliable? Why?

Sorry for the antipodean ignorance.

Yeah, undersea, called Basslink. To be fair though, Tasmania produces 90% of it's power by hydro and wind. I once sat next to a man on a flight who worked with Tasmania Hydro whose job was to work on cloud seeding.
 

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