Bud, my father was an energy consultant and worked in the nuclear, steam,
and solar energy fields. He was leery of nuclear (too high maintenance)
loved steam for it's simplicity (but required a fuel source, usually fossil
fuel, or too dirty coal or wood), and found his joy in the huge solar arrays
out near Barstow California. He was responsible for rebuilding the system
out there, and to the end of his days, said THAT was the way to produce
clean, useable power for the masses.
In an automotive sense, the technology could be transferred in some ways,
but not directly. The huge Barstow arrays heated oil in large pipelines
which in turn heated water into steam. These drove huge turbines/generators
which of course produced electricity. All in a closed system.
This is not directly related to your comments, but I thought you might find
it interesting. My father was a mechanical wizard, he rose to the top of his
field yet never completed Grade 12. :-) The Second World War got in his way,
so he joined the Canadian Army. Afterwards he got into the energy field. He
figured if you had an open mind and were curious, that was the best
university there was. He loved the U.S. and spent the last 20 yrs of his
working life down there, where the attitude was "Well let's just get the
damn thing built", instead of up here where committees struck by engineers
would argue for weeks as the job slowly plodded along. :-)
Regards,
Courtney