External combustion engines need a comeback. Stirling engines for (self-driving) cars, boats, ships, chargers for phones and laptops and maybe even for flying drones

Some current technologies enable better use of stirling engines, steam engines and steam turbines. Plug-in hybrid car with stirling engine + lithium-ion battery. Computer controls burn of wood chips. Aircraft might have fuel that has sawdust or coaldust mixed with oil to form a thick fluid that burns. Energy from stirling engine goes to capacitors first and then to electric motors. Using and charging computers with camp fire material is useful back-up option. Sometimes solar chargers are not usable and even if they are, it may take one day of charging a battery that does not keep it's charge in storage and does not work in freezing cold. First there has to be a day, which may be 12 hours away, or on arctic circle in winter, months away.

By the way, NASA has some plans of using nuclear powered stirling engines in space.

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