Micro,
Most of the time I am in areas which I think COULD generate more than enough power from solar to power house+car IF there were sufficient batteries, charging panels, and -- most of all -- NEED.
There are a lot of qualifications in that last paragraph, so I am not kidding myself.
What drives me nuts, is why so little common sense has been deployed since 1970, when the US went past peak oil. As of that point, we knew we had a vast weakness. Still, building standards haven't changed to sufficiently encourage what we know about southern exposure and geothermal. Someone here said they don't understand why HYBRID vehicles weren't more encouraged. Indeed, it seems they are DIScouraged (unavailable) even though we don't yet have the 100 year batteries we would need to make local power generation work.
I suggest, again, that everyone do sufficient reading about what peak oil actually means and implies. It is wise to either personally do something about it, or mathematically DISPROVE IT in energetic terms (again, economics and existence of in-ground oil are irrelevant if the energetics don't work).
Otherwise it is sort of like playing Russian Roulette on the "theory" that there aren't bullets in the gun, or the bullets can't penetrate your thick skull. No need to be conservative! This is one of those things you DON'T want to get wrong. I recommend you err on the side of being sure you can produce your own power, in sufficient quantity, that you CAN survive your minimal lifestyle.
It's easy enough to test: flip off your central breaker and turn off your gas or propane. Can you make it a week? A month? A year?
Most of us couldn't make it beyond a DAY, and yet we persist in the delusion that we are strong and don't have a problem.
I have come to realize that men are not born to be free. Liberty is a need felt by a small class of people whom nature has endowed with nobler minds than the mass of men. -Napoleon
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