I haven't looked into it deeply, but Oil & Gas have been getting massive subsidies for decades. Society needs energy and energy often requires massive investment upfront. I think if solar got the same subsidies that Oil & Gas have received, it would be way further along in development.

I disagree about a Government needing to be profitable.
Part of the point is to be unprofitable.
A library, for example, shouldn't be profitable. The benefits of a library are a better educated population that can solve more complex problems and generate even greater GDP. Libraries are amazing investments for a region and a community, but terrible short-term profit-generators.

I'm sure you're aware with how amazingly terrible PG&E is. They've killed at least 127 people, caused millions in damage, etc, all because it's not profitable to maintain their infrastructure. If PG&E was government-run that wouldn't be an issue.

I agree that Bitcoin isn't a waste of energy, especially compared to financial institutions, but it is pretty sickening when Bitcoin miners find that restarting old coal plants is the most profitable way to power their servers. I hate all of that.