Scientists really need to think out of the box about this. I bet the answer is here already, we just aren't seeing it.IF it weren't for those pesky laws of physics, like the conservation of energy, and enthalpy and entropy we could 'probably' get away from doing the hard work of, well, doing 'work' to accomplish some goal, like transportation or turning a generator shaft and forcing electrons to flow through wires; short of implementing room temperaure super-conductivity and getting LENR/COld fusion reproducable economically, we're pretty much bound to the present technology found at Lowes or Home Depot, although improvements to existing technology occurs continuously ...
I would think a self contained system could be developed in individual units for homes and cars.
We would not be limited to Home Depot parts IMO.
There has to be new and other ways to approach the problem.