To answer the question, far too much. Solar power should be far more popular than it is.
Solar power is extremely expensive.
I think half the people are greenies. Ask anyone what contributes to 103% of our "carbon footprint" and people automatically blame the car so we get all these stupid hybrids.
See, I think hybrid cars are BULLCRAP. Everyone is trippin' on the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid, the Smart car, etc. Car & Driver did a test to see if the claims from manufacturers and people who say "I LOVE MY GREEN CAR" are telling the truth. Well, the car that was used to compare was a 2005 VW Jetta diesel.... whaddya know, the Jetta got at least 7-10 more MPG than the Prius, a LOT more than the Smart car, and a TON more than the Ford Focus SEL. Tests were conducted in the city, driving 55 MPH, and driving 75 MPH, and the average of all three. Even the new BMW M3 (E92) was considered more efficient than the Prius almost half the time, according to Top Gear under normal driving conditions (M3-19MPG avg.; Prius-17MPG avg... please note M3 = 4.0L V8, Prius = 1.5L 4 cylinder)
Along with that you have to put premium in hybrids so they wont detonate (knock) so you're having to spend that little extra for that little extra fuel efficiency, so it's almost as if you break even, unless you average like 5 miles a day as someone one would try and say as an excuse. Also remember, that all the methanol/ethanol/bio-diesel still costs more than regular gas and won't be coming down any time soon. They use corn for this so you have to leave less space for corn and anything else that grows for humans and animals for the corn used for the fuels, so in turn, that ramps up the price of corn for us.... so I imagine they figure "OH HEY YA KNOW... CORN IS UP LETS RAISE EVERYTHING!!!!" Keep in mind, that the machines that process the corn to make bio-diesel, for example,
run off diesel typically... let's not forget the diesel 18 wheelers, etc. that have to haul it to wherever it needs to go, so for every gallon of diesel used to make fuel, it's like a gallon and a half of methanol/whatever has been pretty much been canceled out.
The only alternate power source I can really side with is hydrogen (car-wise). Electric will go nowhere since you have to charge the car, you have to have gasoline anyway so the fuel cell has something to do, they are extremely underpowered (110HP Prius = barely getting up hills and wasting juice to do it), have many, many batteries that are relatively inefficient, and they would be EXTREMELY dangerous if you did anything BUT drive them since there are so many electric systems and batteries around. If you shorted one of the batteries out being near several other batteries, then wow may God have mercy on you.
I don't mind wind power. I like the look of the windmills, but when piled up irregularly on hill/mountain sides, then they usually look like an eyesore... keep in mind the bright red, blinking LEDs on top of all of them for aircraft so seeing all those would probably be annoying for citizens and be the premise for another "mystery UFO lights" video, seeings as we have many crazy conspiracy believers. Oh yeah and if something breaks on one of those things,
this and
this could happen. (I like the first one.)