Where our "alternative energy" technology is today.

Check out this video and see where our alternative technology is today, at least off the shelf technology. It's pretty high-tech stuff.

Notice that all the energy produced by the solar panels and wind turbine are not enough to power the truck and camper! As a matter of fact, the energy produced is not even enough to power just the truck.

Now, of course this is likely a diesel truck (or maybe gasoline), and so the truck cannot be moved by electricity because it's not an electric truck. But rest assured that the electricity being produced by that RV is not enough energy to move the truck by any significant distance. Not to mention that if you were to make it an electric truck with today's technology you'd be adding a lot of very heavy (and expensive) batteries that would add to the total weight; thus requiring even more energy to move the truck than it currently requires.

Lastly, I'd like to mention that all this high-tech equipment (solar panels and wind turbines) can only be manufactured right now through the burning of fossil fuels. I.e., his equipment might provide enough energy for his needs (but not enought to move the truck) and in an era of say, oil scarcity, this might be a great thing. However, eventually his "alternative fuel" equipment will have to be replaced (due to wear or damage), and if that happens in an age where oil is scarce... he might not be able to replace it.

I hope this illustrates where our technology is today and the incredible energy density of liquid fuels. Of course there's hope... we are still trying to develop technology that will "produce" energy that is not dependent on fossil fuels.

So far, however, all this technology that people are hoping will solve the energy crunch that we're facing is all built on fossil fuels. In other words, no oil means not enough energy and not enough materials to build all this equipment!