And Solar is not 'free' because all the hardware (solar panels, etc.) still has to be manufactured, transported, installed/assembled, and maintained, and all that incurs costs.
Same basic reasons why wind energy is not 'free'.
They are also not 'zero emissions' so the net-zero zealots can't rightfully claim them as 'signature' systems.
Also solar power is grossly inefficient - solar panels are no more than 25 percent efficient so all the other solar energy they absorbed gets wasted as heat. This is why using solar as an energy transformation source to charge electric cars is a pure green-wash.
@MethDozer Energy efficiency is not the full story as once you start comparing transport modes themselves the landscape changes. Rail is nearly 100 times more energy efficient as a land-based transport method than road. But legislative frameworks favour road because governments leverage massive tax revenue from road and almost nil (by comparison) from rail. The vested interests are what drives government policy, and what drive the net-zero zealots who won't accept anything other than net-zero that is technically impossible to achieve. Air transport can be considered either extremely efficient or extremely inefficient depending on how you look at it. Also marine transport is actually extremely efficient, but then you have another element - time - as a prevailing factor which is another dimension on how you compare very slow (marine) against very fair (air) transport and factor it's energy usage to gauge 'efficiency'. Practical efficiency is very different from commercial efficiency.
@zonavar68 That's my point, solar and wind actually have a very good practicality to them. As for interest and legislation that is irrelevant because that is all changeable and artificial man made hurdles.
That all said part of the whole green process everyone on both sides ignore or pay only token lip service to is reduction of use. We use a lot of energy for trivial things that we could benefit immensely doing away with.
@MethDozer agree and this is a core fundamental issue. Human society in suburban enclaves is inherently very energy inefficent and reducing energy usage overall is very difficult to achieve unless there's another ice age very soon and humanity is force back to time before modern technology came about (so back around 500 years at least).
@DeWayfarer Trouble is that the industrial process of 'producing' hydrogen en-masse - steam reformation - is one of the 'dirtiest' and most energy wasting industrial processes known. It's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off being 'better' or in any way 'green'.
The main issue at play is that you take any mass and you still require a quantity of energy, regardless of where it comes from, to move that mass from a to b. Energy can only be transformed, it's not created or destroyed. Energy transformation *always* incurs losses.
@zonavar68 no. Trouble is the greed involved in the energy industry. So called solar industry was just as inefficient hydrogen when it started.
Why is Hertz dumping their whole fleet of EVs? Primarily because they can't afford the darn maintenance of the batteries. Yet it's more than that. In very cold weather the darn EVs won't start.
There's no such problems with either hydrogen cells (yes electric) nor hydrogen gas run vehicles. It doesn't freeze even in cold temperatures.
Then there's the ecological problems of what to do with the batteries once they are spent. Please don't say recycling! It's not happening!
Yet with hydrogen the waste is pure water! Possibly a little nitrogen with both cells and hydrogen gas.
If we would have invested in hydrogen decades ago the technology would be far more advanced than today.
I love some of these comments. Progress is interesting. Every step along the way, innovation has been met with derision. There was a huge push against electricity when it was first being introduced. Maybe it's fear of change. And progress. Some don't like it. Or demand perfection immediately without recognizing the process. Good thing they get barrelled over and left in the dust.
@SethGreene531 They're a LOT cheaper than they used to be, but they're not the great solution they're painted to be. Most people cannot afford solar, and those people are the ones least likely to ever consider electric cars (which are a total scam)
