"Our Electric Future"
Andy Grove, former CEO and Chairman of Intel, has this thought-provoking piece in The American magazine. His basic argument is that maximizing our energy-resilience makes more sense than focusing on energy-independence:
Because electricity is the stickiest form of energy, and because it is multi-sourced, it will give us the greatest degree of energy resilience. Our nation will be best served if we dedicate ourselves to increasing the amount of our energy that we use in the form of electricity.And:
We have an urgent need for a strategy that can deflect our march toward this “persisting conflict” [over scarce resources] by strengthening our energy resilience. A policy that favors sticky energy with multiple sources and that aggressively moves vehicles first toward dual-fuel mode and ultimately to running on just electricity provides the answer.I think he is onto something.
Comments
However, the interesting thing is that the very argument used to advance this point contains an argument against it. In effect, he is saying electricity is great because there are lots of different ways to produce it. Thus, if one or more of these methods becomes scarce or difficult, the others will be there to fill the gap. I agree with this general point: to not put all of one's eggs in one basket, so to speak.
Unfortunately, if we make everything run on electricity, that could very well turn out to be putting all of our eggs in one basket! If the multiple sources of electricity do not collect into a single point too early (i.e. if the different methods and materials are freely available to private companies and consumers), then all is well. But I can picture a very dangerous situation in which, for instance, literally everything from our televisions to automobiles to home heating relies upon the electricity provided by state-operated utilities. That would be very bad.
Frankly, I don't think we need to do very much about pushing everything towards electricity. It’s headed in that direction, and I think that is mostly a good thing.
I agree that would be bad. But I don't think the electricity generation business is headed that way. Wind and especially solar are ideal for decentralized generation. I personally want to generate my own electricity, for example, and solar & wind are going to let me do it efficiently.