Hasbeen,

Interesting that you are considering Stirling engines, they are renowned for their inefficiency on a work performed to weight/size ratio but when designed for a specific job they are very efficient.

I had the pleasure of restoring a two-cylinder one that is near 8 feet high and weighs about a ton.
It had been pumping water from about 20 feet in a well, the submerged pump had a 1 and a 1/2 inch bore and approx 6-inch stroke, very small in comparison to the engine.
After over 70 years of operation, it was replaced by an electric motor and became derelict.
It was given to the then Karingal Village Museum (on Conrod Straight) where I got it working again and pumping water.

Conrod Straight, my old stamping ground. It sounds like that pump would be from a small windmill.

I have also bought a windmill from another neighbor. It is a bit rough & they lost the pump off the bottom of the pipe & pump section down the bore. Cost them a fortune to have a specialist spend 2 days trying to recover it unsuccessfully from 180 Ft down. I have a bore hole down by the river, but it only produced 120 gallons an hour continually at 200 ft, not enough to supply a windmill reliably, but could be made to work in an emergency. It would be enough to do an acre or so of market type garden.

I am no prepper, but with the stupidity we see in governments around the world, the possibility we may have to look after ourselves is increasing daily. The surest way to not have it not happen is to have all the things necessary to survive gathered.

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Hmmm.
Hasbeen, having driven a couple of electric cars I am impressed with them.
I would buy one if the price was reasonable.
There is a Chinese MG on the market now $10k cheaper than the cheapest
otherwise. However I won't spend that sort of money on Chinese anything.
Word is prices will be matched by 2025, they hope.

The "Big Reset" is where a lot of these dopey ideas are being generated.
The covid19 seems to given them big ideas above their station.
Our biggest problem is that the kids leaving school are brainwashed
and will vote that way until their I-Phone won't work.
There is a lot of waffle about electric cars, and most charge them at home.
Commuters of course charge perhaps once or twice a week at night and
if it is a still night the powers (pun intended) that be think the
big batteries will do the job. I think they are stark raving mad.
They never consider that the batteries need to be recharged.
Where will that power come from on that scale, if the sun does not
come out from behind the clouds the next morning ?
Re oil and gas, I think the oil industry has told someone that times up !
So get rid of cars and industry will be fine.
The oil industry knows it is a declining business but they can stretch
it out if car numbers decline. The motor industry sees electric as
their only hope.
Lots of machinations in all that lot that "The Big Reset" will take advantage.

A "No new petrol cars by 2030" policy is a least-effort-required target. Market forces will cause people by preference to choose electric cars by 2030 without the government having to do anything at all.

A few years ago I investigated the economic case for electric cars for my own circumstances. At that time they cost considerably more over the life of the car when accounting for the average yearly distances that I drive. But it was clearly evident that within a decade (from back then) that they would be the rational choice (ie: cheapest option) for the general public as the technology improves and prices come down.

In fact the market place of EV's is changing so fast that if you were to by a new car in just a couple of years and you drive further than the average commuter then an EV might make sense. This is because although the there will still be a sizeable difference in the upfront purchase price (currently typically some 10's of thousand of dollars difference in price but that is coming down every year) the per-kilometer costs of running an EV car are notably cheaper than petrol powered cars.

Already in situations where a vehicle does many kms per day every day, such as taxis and light deliveries, full electric or plug-in hybrids should be considered. Indeed, as an example, the fleet of iconic London black taxicabs from The London Taxi Corporation are transitioning to electric vehicles combined with range-extender generators.

thinkabit the elephant in the woodpile is that if the closure of coal fired power plants goes ahead as planned, there is no way we will have enough power from windmills to supply our existing needs. Without coal fired, or nuclear power, we will be living in the dark.

There is no chance we could supply the extra requirement of charging electric cars. Buy one if you like, but by 2030 it will be a useless ornament in your garage, in the way of the push bike you ride to do the shopping, & to work if we have many jobs in our collapsed economy.