With solar and storage becoming cheap, we are in many ways in the beginning of a cheap energy revolution. Think of that jet pack dude. Those things are about 5%

With solar and storage becoming cheap, we are in many ways in the beginning of a cheap energy revolution. Think of that jet pack dude. Those things are about 5% efficient thermodynamically, and they use jet fuel which costs about 5-15 cents per chemical kWh of energy, so the cost per useful mechanical kWh is about $1-3. For electric power, you can use off-peak electricity at 5 cents per kWh (or solar power utility scale which is half of that and falling) and the efficiency is more like 80-95%, for a useful energy cost of between 3 and 6 cents per mechanical kWh. Plus, electric motors and batteries cost less than those microturbines. And the motors are comparable in specific power, even. So the ingredients are there for new modes of transport enabled by MUCH cheaper and more abundant mechanical energy. Which we are, in fact, seeing in the form of Urban Air Mobility vehicles. But it may take quite a while for all these things to make it through society. The 21st Century is the century of the lithium battery like the 20th Century was the century of the internal combustion engine. Brushless motors with high energy rare earth magnets are a big part of this new energy revolution. 200 years after Faraday invented the first electric motor.