We can transition to all the mentioned alternatives and not use fossil fuel to make electricity. However we will never be able to stop using fossil fuels. Why? You have to have high heat to make steel, titanium, and other hard metals. Coal produces the highest heat here, as well as coal is needed to make carbon steel. We also need lubricants for the windmills, wheels, and any type of gearing. We need coal and oil to make plastics, carbon composites, and drugs.
Vehicles. We are just beginning to use them. They will have to come down in price, the range has to go up, and the recharging times down. Right now, the Tesla Model S can get 320 miles on a full charge, and it can use one of their 440 volt superchargers and recharge to 90% in 45 minutes. Noone else can yet. Again, a Tesla Model S now sells for around $120,000. So the price has to come down. Their model 3 has about a 240-60 mile range and sells for around $50,000. Still kind of high. A small car similar to a Toyota Corola. Their Model S has an all aluminum frame and body to cut weight, but costs more than steel. I feel like right now the transition vehicles should by hybrid, part battery, part engine, like the Toyota Prius, but in larger vehicles and trucks. Batteries must also be made to recycle. The US has enough lithium in California to make every car in America electric. They won't let them strip mine it. Minnesota also has a lot of lithium. Tesla is now making their batteries lithium iron, as cobalt is more rare and is mined by child labor in Africa. Scrap iron is far more plentiful. The country and the world for that matter is going electric for vehicles.
What the extreme left doesn't understand is we will never be able to do away with coal, natural gas, and oil as mentioned above. Also, they don't understand it is not going to happen overnight. There are 200 million cars and trucks in America. They will last another 20-30 years before they are sent to the scrapyards. They ain't going away anytime soon. Also, any transition to new energy sources takes around 30 years to become mainstream. We went from burning wood in steam engines, to burning coal, to burning diesel and gasoline. This took over 100 years. Diesel locomotives last at least 50 years before they are replaced.
What the right doesn't understand is we should get away from importing oil and gas and using renewable energy for cleaner air if nothing else and burning it to make electricity.
I don't believe hydrogen is a solution due to higher leakage problems, and higher pressures needed to equal natural gas for burning alone. If you liquify hydrogen it causes metal embrittlement that can cause cracks in the metal which in turn causes leaks. Natural gas is already being liquified, stored, transported in liquid natural gas ships (LNG ships). Using hydrogen to make natural gas to me is a better solution.
First we are already going wind, solar is next. Then maybe by then electric cars may be cheaper. We have to fix the power infrastructure first, protect it, and gradually transition to wind, solar, and even nuclear. Nuclear fusion has always been 10 years away since the 60's, so there is that.
