Youre list of energy technologies is like listing coins: "But we have nickels, pennies, quarter, half dollars, dude, silver dollars!" And then I say, "Yeah, but they cannot replace the work done by hundred dollar bills."

Energy return on invested is the point. No panel technology is going to do the work of millions upon millions of years of geology. Thats how hydrocarbons were made. The earth did the condensing of dead plant matter for millions upon millions of years. That was free work to make a fuel that has a very high energy density. When you collect solar radiation with a panel, you are gathering something very diffuse (rays of sunlight) and you then must condense them into a usable form. Thats what the PV cells do. To assert that you will get a return on investment of energy greater than hydrocarbons is bonkers. The mining, manufacturing, smelting, distribution, installation, maintenance, etc for PV tech eats a massive portion of the energy that panel will ever generate in its life cycle. The society you see around you needs a high energy return on investment to continue. As of yet, nothing even compares to oil, coal, and natural gas.

All of this aside, good growers of food know that they are growing soil, not plants. Soil is alive, and healthy soil is awash in micronutrients. You will not have that in some hydroponic tower system. You will be creating lower grade food than a permaculture farm will create and you will use far more resources to do it.

My last statement is just being realistic. Human notions of rights exist in our mind. We made them up. They are social conventions. Thats ok, we need social conventions to interact. But to declare that any human ever born has more of a right to live than other living beings puts you in dangerous logical territory. Where does it end? Ten billion people? Fifty billion? One hundred billion? All living like middle class Americans with high consumption lifestyles? Thats a recipe for global extinction. Then where is your right to be alive?