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I bet if someone did actually come up with ZPE or whatever, the people whose heads would explode most would be the Luddites on the Left who don’t want people to have cheap abundant energy.

Well, there are plenty of other contenders, from solar power to nuclear fusion. All these technologies have to overcome three hurdles:

I. Proof of concept: You have to demonstrate that the physics actually work.

II. Engineering prototype: You have to show that you can actually build it in the right size.

III. Commercial viability: You have to prove that it's economically feasible.

Accordingly there are four categories:

1. Available and competitive products.
2. Solutions that are available on the market, but where the economics don't work out yet (Which can change, but is not guaranteed to do so).
3. Things that in principle can be built but first you have to overcome serious engineering challenges (e.g. exotic new materials). Even these products often don't make it to the market, think nuclear powered aircraft.
4. Things that don't work because they are based on a principle that flies in the face of physics.

The Hoover Dam falls into category 1. Solar power would be category 2. Hydrogen Fusion is category 3. Steorn Orbo is category 4 (because a.) Zero Point energy is quite useless as an energy source and b.) even if it weren't you couldn't harness it with such a simple contraption).