Does a Big Economy Need Big Power Plants?
America’s energy needs have changed considerably in recent years. With hundreds of millions of people running the digital devices that support modern life, our growing energy demand prompts us to question the viability of modern electricity generation and transmission. Recently, RMI’s Chief Scientist Amory Lovins wrote a guest piece for the New York Times Freakonomics Blog in which he responds to the question “Does a Big Economy Need Big Power Plants?”
In the piece he describes the benefits of distributed electric supply (e.g., wind turbines, solar cells, fuel cells, etc.). According to Lovins, “distributed benefits often boost economic value by about tenfold. The biggest come from financial economics: for example, small, fast, modular units are less risky to build than big, slow, lumpy ones, and renewable energy sources avoid the risks of volatile fuel prices.”
In addition to the economic argument, Lovins points out that a distributed electric supply can offer greater reliability than a few large units strung together by a shaky grid. For the full article, posted on the New York Times Freakonomics Blog, please click here. Also, for more information on the benefits of distributed electric resources and micropower, see www.smallisprofitable.org.
Sincerely,
Rocky Mountain Institute
