Just to prove I'm not neanderthal I'll outline a POSSIBLE future that is worth aiming for. You can talk about solutions till the cows come home but unless they are economically viable in the long term and have appeal to Joe Sixpack, it isn't a solution.
I think, technically, plug-in electric cars are the future for city commuters but it will be a hard sell to get Mum out of her people-mover when that is cheaper to own than an electric shopping trolly. And in spite of what you may have assumed I have not dismissed private generation out of hand. Our current thinking is rubbish though. Solar, wind and other technologies may one day be viable on a cents/watts basis but without storage they are pretty useless.
How can we link all these together?
Rooftop generation needs a "smart" meter but other consumers aren't going to pay absurd subsidies forever so you need to do something more. Mum isn't going to go electric if there isn't an angle. Why not have the smart meter use the car batteries as "distributed storage" where it can be charged off peak and sell back power during peak? There are a number of still unproven technologies for "distributed generation" such as CERAMIC FUEL CELLS's blue gen (?) unit. (It has a massive cost barrier to overcome yet)
These as yet unproven technologies will only be developed in a friendly environment and the "smart" meters are (as I see it) an integral part of that environment.
Any PRACTICAL advances/criticisms to this scenario?
