The American power grid is an outgrowth of a competitive war of titanic proportions between two vastly different visions for delivering electrical power. The war was initially between two men of genius caliber intellect. It quickly grew beyond them to those that supported them, and beyond. The visionary wunderkinds were Thomas Edison and Nickola Tesla.
The war between these two men was the stuff of legend. Their competing visions for electrical power boiled down the DC model promoted by Edison and the AC model promoted by Tesla. Both models were radically different from each other. The struggle for supremacy of the electrical distribution hegemony brought out the best and the worst in both men and their corporate backers.
Much has been said and written about this period of strife. The purpose of this piece is however not to chronicle in detail this period. Rather it is my purpose to ask a simple question. In the decades since this struggle was concluded and Tesla's AC model won, we have seen the task as building a grid of electrical distribution and making that grid as efficient as possible. All the effort has been place on managing the grid. And we have settled into a world of balkanized oligarch's ruling regionalized monopolies that have a stranglehold on the consumer.
My question is this, What's next? Where is the effort for innovation in the world of power generation? The battle for creation of new methods and new processes seems to have ended when the battle between Edison and Tesla concluded. Sure we have experimented new technologies and we have created more efficient methods of delivering power. The revolutionary time of Edison and Tesla seems to be gone.
There don't appear to be any great thinkers working on the question of what's next. There don't appear to be men and women on the stature of their progenitors of the grid efforting this issue. A dearth of fundamental basic research is where we find ourselves. Researchers don't seem to be interested in revolutionizing the situation. They seem be content to put their efforts into innovating the status quo. Essentially making the mouse trap a more effective, not in reviewing if the mouse trap is needed at all is where we reside.
The status quo is untenable. Our civilization is struggling under an archaic model that is verging close to a century in age. And while the grid's impressive size and scope in the first world, it is a staggering problem for the developing world. As nations attempt to make the herculean leaps that first world nations made a century ago, their population sizes and the grids and power plant necessary to support them are becoming environmentally challenging.
Take the athletes that competed in the Beijing Olympiad for example. Across the glod they spent a minimal amount of time there, because of poor air quality. As pollution goes, China's environmental situation is bad verging worse. Even with the efforts to clean things up for the Olympics, it was a difficult situation. As other nations of China's size attempt to make their leaps the global impact is likely to be disastrous.
I am not a doom and gloom let's all return to the 17th century agrarian life, sort of person. Nor am I suggesting radical change for the overall individual electrical consumer. what I am saying is that our civilization needs the next gargantuan innovation that fundamentally alters the electrical model. Our world is waiting with baited breath for that which comes next.
The world needs a cheap, clean, and low impact, user friendly invention that shifts away from the grid delivery model, that while necessary in the past, can no longer be relied upon. Some suggest solar and wind are the way forward and there are benefits to this suggestion. It does however fail the test I laid out for what is needed and are both useless in poor weather conditions or times of zero wind.
Some suggest that nuclear power offers the best way forward. It also fails the test I laid out. Furthermore the recent earthquake in Japan demonstrates that even when the best and brightest build these plants to the highest standards, they are still horrendously risky endeavors. These plants are also among the most costly ways to produce energy. Also even with more than half a century of experience with this power type, we do not have a functional solution for how to handle the waste they produce.
Each other method currently deployed carries with it risk. They all have ecological costs and human health risks attached to them. None have zero environmental impact. No have zero risks to human health. All are products of the last race for innovation and power production.
What we need is something that is fundamentally new. We need something sets the consumer free from their corporate masters, that attempts to enslave them. We need something that renders obsolete the old model and ushers in the next age of human development and progress. Anything less is not what's next, and it is by extension that which already is. And as such is an effort to arrange the Titanic's deck chairs for the best viewing angle of the eventual calamity that will claim us all.
We need a revolution, not to change which company bills the consumer. Rather a revolution that sets us all and our world free. We owe the next generation nothing less.
The war between these two men was the stuff of legend. Their competing visions for electrical power boiled down the DC model promoted by Edison and the AC model promoted by Tesla. Both models were radically different from each other. The struggle for supremacy of the electrical distribution hegemony brought out the best and the worst in both men and their corporate backers.
Much has been said and written about this period of strife. The purpose of this piece is however not to chronicle in detail this period. Rather it is my purpose to ask a simple question. In the decades since this struggle was concluded and Tesla's AC model won, we have seen the task as building a grid of electrical distribution and making that grid as efficient as possible. All the effort has been place on managing the grid. And we have settled into a world of balkanized oligarch's ruling regionalized monopolies that have a stranglehold on the consumer.
My question is this, What's next? Where is the effort for innovation in the world of power generation? The battle for creation of new methods and new processes seems to have ended when the battle between Edison and Tesla concluded. Sure we have experimented new technologies and we have created more efficient methods of delivering power. The revolutionary time of Edison and Tesla seems to be gone.
There don't appear to be any great thinkers working on the question of what's next. There don't appear to be men and women on the stature of their progenitors of the grid efforting this issue. A dearth of fundamental basic research is where we find ourselves. Researchers don't seem to be interested in revolutionizing the situation. They seem be content to put their efforts into innovating the status quo. Essentially making the mouse trap a more effective, not in reviewing if the mouse trap is needed at all is where we reside.
The status quo is untenable. Our civilization is struggling under an archaic model that is verging close to a century in age. And while the grid's impressive size and scope in the first world, it is a staggering problem for the developing world. As nations attempt to make the herculean leaps that first world nations made a century ago, their population sizes and the grids and power plant necessary to support them are becoming environmentally challenging.
Take the athletes that competed in the Beijing Olympiad for example. Across the glod they spent a minimal amount of time there, because of poor air quality. As pollution goes, China's environmental situation is bad verging worse. Even with the efforts to clean things up for the Olympics, it was a difficult situation. As other nations of China's size attempt to make their leaps the global impact is likely to be disastrous.
I am not a doom and gloom let's all return to the 17th century agrarian life, sort of person. Nor am I suggesting radical change for the overall individual electrical consumer. what I am saying is that our civilization needs the next gargantuan innovation that fundamentally alters the electrical model. Our world is waiting with baited breath for that which comes next.
The world needs a cheap, clean, and low impact, user friendly invention that shifts away from the grid delivery model, that while necessary in the past, can no longer be relied upon. Some suggest solar and wind are the way forward and there are benefits to this suggestion. It does however fail the test I laid out for what is needed and are both useless in poor weather conditions or times of zero wind.
Some suggest that nuclear power offers the best way forward. It also fails the test I laid out. Furthermore the recent earthquake in Japan demonstrates that even when the best and brightest build these plants to the highest standards, they are still horrendously risky endeavors. These plants are also among the most costly ways to produce energy. Also even with more than half a century of experience with this power type, we do not have a functional solution for how to handle the waste they produce.
Each other method currently deployed carries with it risk. They all have ecological costs and human health risks attached to them. None have zero environmental impact. No have zero risks to human health. All are products of the last race for innovation and power production.
What we need is something that is fundamentally new. We need something sets the consumer free from their corporate masters, that attempts to enslave them. We need something that renders obsolete the old model and ushers in the next age of human development and progress. Anything less is not what's next, and it is by extension that which already is. And as such is an effort to arrange the Titanic's deck chairs for the best viewing angle of the eventual calamity that will claim us all.
We need a revolution, not to change which company bills the consumer. Rather a revolution that sets us all and our world free. We owe the next generation nothing less.
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