I like your article for its optimism, and understanding of the energy-economy connection, which is wholly justified, even though the main thrust of "no more burning" seems flawed to me. Burning hydrogen fuel is just fine, possibly also solving some water supply problems, if we just make the hydrogen fuel directly from solar :)
The money-fuel tree story shows how we can do it, solving also the economic problem of inequality / capital advantage, and also the energy storage problem.
Reversible fuel cells enable the hydrogen generation directly from solar whilst also solving the rare Earth materials battery problem (they don't need any).
I believe hydrogen is the fuel of the future, enabling us to maintain a lot of the internal combustion creature comforts we currently enjoy, with none of the pollution, such as commercial air travel, converting it to work with hydrogen would be good work for fuel system Engineers.
I’ve thought this since working on air-to-air refuelling systems, which could have a place in future commercial air flight, after we make the switch to a solar powered hydrogen fueled energy strategy.
A bugatti converted to work with hydrogen for example would still be something very special, it would be a shame to scrap all the impressive machines we used so much fossil fuels to develop. I can’t see any real reason we could no longer enjoy their uniquely high power-to-weight ratio advantage.
I agree the grid is no longer required, in fact will become a millstone until it is broken up. It is an incredibly inefficient, centralised system, compared with decentralised solar.
The materials currently tied up in it will be far better used, re-purposed to distributed solar.
The future energy system is decentralised by nature distributing solar energy evenly all around the world.
Also what I expect will become apparent is the removal of justification for a lot of bullshit industries, which currently present a large self-load to the current fossil fueled energy system. Solar powered UBI in our lives removes the need to create bullshit industries or bullshit jobs including a lot of crime, weapons manufacture, and war, our actual live power requirement is really much lower than we realise, after we get rid of the stupid fossil fueled self-perpetuating crime system of scarcity enforcement.