Alternative energy has been a large user of older forms of power generation

[Sparty]

To date alternative energy by and large has been a large user of older forms of power generation. However there is hope on the horizon.

The quote below comes from Stanford University: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/a...rgy-040213.htm

"For the first time since the boom started, the electricity generated by all of the world's installed solar photovoltaic (PV) panels last year probably surpassed the amount of energy going into fabricating more modules, according to Michael Dale, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford's Global Climate & Energy Project (GCEP). With continued technological advances, the global PV industry is poised to pay off its debt of energy as early as 2015, and no later than 2020."

When you add in the energy that will be used to mine and separate the required substrates including, silicon, rare earth elements, silver, tellurium etc required for many of the "green" technologies it might be a while before we can shift away from Carbon based energy completely and while that transition takes place gas and nuclear are likely to be less harmful than coal in terms of atmospheric pollution.