Nah, these type of people never think that deeply about stuff, and nobody who does would claim they could redesign the wheel in 5 minutes. This person probably hasn't even really thought about our researched solar generators to any significant depth, they're just trying to sound smart to justify their misanthropic behaviour. Being a jerk is much cooler if you're a gigagenius, so they want to act like the Sigma male badass science genius they dream of being.