The defining aspect of practicality and pragmatism is going by the ways that WORK, instead of some empty airheaded 'noble idea' that only proves failure in real world testing. Right now and perhaps a century or more into the future, hydrocarbon fuels are the MOST EFFICIENT storage of potential energy and releasers of kinetic energy. The only thing else that is able to surpass hydrocarbons in raw energy output is nuclear, but that is not an option for most people except highly defended, maintained, and infrastructure supported national agencies and industries.
Wind power: UNSUSTAINABLE. The amount of oil fuel needed to build, transport, and install these turbines far exceed the amount of power they put out.
Solar: UNSUSTAINABLE except in small scale sustenance and emergency use. Large scale solar have proved extremely detrimental for the environment. There are swaths of regions in the American Midwest and the Mongolian steppe that have now been irreparably destroyed by solar arrays, and the toxic chemicals that leach out of the panels when they are damaged by wind, hail, etc. Thousands of acres of agricultural and pastoral land have also been requisitioned by the Chinese government in Lower Mongolia for building solar arrays and their inhabitants left homeless.
Battery powered heavy infrastructure (Construction, mining, transport): UNSUSTAINABLE. Li-ion batteries are awesome for small appliances and portable technology. But when you start dealing with packs that weigh in tons, the potential hazards and problems that they may pose in the event of a malfunction will weigh just as much. And on top of all that, mining the metals and compounds necessary to build these titanic batteries also consumes far more hydrocarbon fuel and discharges more waste/extremely hazardous and carcinogenic pollutants than their energy capacities are worth.
ALL "green" and "alternative" energy production concepts have failed, or are on the verge of failure.
