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The Grid

the Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future
Sep 05, 2018SeattleSaul rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
I think that most of us consider the electric grid as an already-solved problem on how to distribute electricity, which so much of our world depends upon now, myself among them before reading this book. Bakke points out that it evolved in the late 19th century and proceeded to grow using early 20th century thinking and is by now in serious need of a 21st century update. More frequent blackouts lasting longer are symptoms of the problem. However (my analogy) if we decided that the Interstate Highway system was poorly designed, it would be terribly expensive to rip up and start over with something new and better. Bakke suggests that the grid problem is also very difficult, but there are new ideas that are coming around and that we should keep an open mind to, like personal generators for the home. Wind farms, solar fields, geothermal, coal, hydro, and nuclear are also sources of electricity, but they need to part of the overall solution, not just “I got mine, you get yours” (my wording). Overall a good explanation of the history and problems, but I’d like to have had a little more on the technical side (watts, joules, amps, ohms, volts) in the text or footnotes so that one can get a real grasp of what electricity is and how it is measured and ultimately paid for by its users. Some of the writing gets tedious at the end when she is pushing us to realize that we need to change this over-a-century-old servant before it becomes too broken to fix.