Nice write-up, you did an excellent job of explaining the tech in a straightforward and clear manner.

The backlash against renewable energy is really interesting, particularly in the US. Part of that is a tremendous misunderstanding of how these technologies function (e.g. google the US senator who stated that building windmill farms will 'use up all the wind'), but at its core I think it's the reliable old concern of progress pushing out the average Joe - despite Joe being pushed out of the fossil fuel energy sector just as readily right now. Coal will never be what it was twenty years ago, even if it was the only energy source we ever used - automation has simply come to far and increased profits too greatly for things to ever return to what they were.