This seems so inefficient: you're transferring power from the sun into carboniferous life forms, then relying on the compression of the earth to squeeze that ca

This seems so inefficient: you're transferring power from the sun into carboniferous life forms, then relying on the compression of the earth to squeeze that carbon into a dense form. Then you have to mine, ship, store, and burn that carbon to boil water to turn turbines -- you are losing a lot of the power in harvest transport alone, let alone the steam cycle. Plus you get all the downsides of combustion: fly ash and greenhouse gases. Non sarcastic response: Different sites are going to have different needs and different local resources they can exploit for energy. There may be reasons why solar, wind, nuclear, etc. might not be appropriate here.