Over in the next-generation transportation world, there is open talk about compressed natural gas (CNG) and even liquefied natural gas (LNG) becoming the car and truck fuel of tomorrow. In fact, a quick check of our sister publication reveals that San Francisco International Airport has had a CNG terminal for 15 years that is now regularly used by a fleet of 600 buses, vans, taxis and autos.

As for LNG, I hear those three letters and think of the bulbous white spheroids emerging from the superstructure of tremendous ocean-going tankers that periodically trouble the thoughts of civil servants in our nation’s port cities. I had a friend who was a merchant marine, and he would tell me about piracy situations around Indonesia - pretty much right out of “Captain Phillips.” He said the pirates never went after the LNG ships.

So imagine my surprise when I discovered that LNG tanks are not just a means of transporting natural gas from Point A to Point B, but that they are suitable - properly sized - as fuel storage for vehicles as well.

Take a spin over to the solar sector on Twitter and see how natural gas is perceived. Many would like to stamp all natural gas receptacles - compressed, liquefied or otherwise - with a skull-and-crossbones. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is clearly a little conflicted on the matter. While eager to burnish its renewable energy bona fides, the DOE can’t get over how much natural gas we have stuffed away under our feet.

The solar sector routinely finds its performance in capacity and cost measured up against the emerging superstar of the energy field. Type “natural gas” into the search engine on solarindustrymag.com. This is what comes up:

• Could Solar Be Cheaper Than Natural Gas?
• Competitive Solar And Natural Gas To Advance Hand-In-Hand
• IEA: Renewables To Beat Out Natural Gas By 2016
• New U.S. Energy Secretary Embraces Natural Gas, ‘Bullish’ On Solar

And so on. There’s a lot more. Clearly, natural gas is the team to beat. Or is it?

I recently had a conversation with a financial expert who provides financing for solar energy projects. He confided to me his dream of a solar array on every rooftop, and a gas generator in every basement. R