even after a 2 month hiatus by one of the bigger producers--cars--is troubling. Since Mauna Loa is still part of the active Hawaiian system and has been showing other signs of activity, one wonders if some of it is being generated under their feet instead of by the planet's industry.
Renewable energy will likely be a part of future energy production since the solar end, at least, will run cheaply for many years after the initial energy cost of producing the equipment, making it far cheaper in the long run over building new coal fired generating stations. Are we ready to convert entirely? Of course not.
Also, as you pointed out, as long as we use steel, we will use coal. It's never going away entirely.
However, seeing free hydrogen as stored energy and therefore a flawed "clean" energy source somewhat misleading. MIT had a pilot project, a closed system in which solar power was used during the day to generate household energy with enough extra power to perform electrolysis. At night, the system swapped over to a fuel cell generator that used the resulting hydrogen and oxygen. This was well over 20 years ago, maybe 30. While no one wants a big garden shed sized fuel cell in the backyard plus a house covered in solar panels, I have to wonder why the system wasn't scaled up as another project.
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