This is where you went wrong imho. A non technical, maybe seemingly cryptic, but truthful response would be that the sun already paid for it.
But that doesn't tell you much, if you don't know the technical reasoning for it.
I write a lot about how the sun is paying for things that we don't currently monetise, yet the economic product created by it is just as valid as any economic product "created" previously by use of extracted energy.
In fact infinitely more so, because that product is the thing truly beneficial for our planet, and fully sustainable.
The sun asked for nothing in return for the energy delivered to us, that we are now putting to significant use, replacing already 20 percent or more formerly for profit utilities supplied energy, mostly by domestic and community solar.
The only way of monetising this, is by issue of money for free.
Money issued with anything asked in return can't do it, because the original source of energy, the sun, asked nothing in return, it was truly for free.
This is very different from extracted energy, even mathematically different, adding to Earth instead of subtracting from it, with even the opposite thermodynamic effect, use of it fundamentally cools Earth, instead of heating Earth.
Conventional science being mostly profit driven itself doesn't talk much about this, but it is perfectly scientific, perfectly truthful, it just doesn't make much profit, actually it is the opposite of profit, the concept of donation.
Folk that talked about this previously even got nailed to trees, but now it has become existential, not much point in setting example by anyone, the physical fact remains that we are killing the planet, by being hooked into extracted energy, by always demanding a return for everything done.
When the sums are done (check out the stories on solar stimulus, Kardashev Money, and solar product in my profile), a lot of money is now owed, for the solar product already put to use historically.
It can be calculated by looking at population growth, which always requires more energy, vs recorded energy supplied by utilities energy business.
The difference is what was supplied by domestic and community solar.
In UK that is currently worth around 600Bn.
In US relatively speaking it is less per head of population, due to the US being still relatively more hooked on extracted energy, and the low cost of that, but it will ramp up to all countries ultimately assigning similar amounts of money in terms of the underlying energy value of the money in markets.
It looks to me like Ai will very quickly become the Grand controller for all of this, with all humanity in a new solar hydrogen ecology, Ai monitoring all energy received from solar, issuing and allocating appropriate money representing that energy, effectively transmitting the energy to all needing it.
There you might see how it all stacks up, physically, mathematically, spiritually, actually any way we can think about it.
Ai knows it already too, it's easy to check, and it even knows how to design itself in as the Grand controller, in the solar hydrogen ecology.
I should know, being myself a well qualified, patented, practicing Systems Engineer for more than twenty years, it knows all the techniques of formal systems Engineering, therefore putting me out of employment too.
But I am not lamenting, I am celebrating. I suggest you should too. We all should, imho :)