Interesting article on "electric grid of the future."

[skids]

Sound pie-in-the-sky to me, but does delve into some issues worth being aware of.

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/business/technology/12685962.htm

[BeFree]

1. Its a start, maybe real good news?

Some quotes below. What the article talks about is a decentralized generating system, relying on small producers and a revamped grid. The sources would be wind, solar and small gas plants all hooked into a grid made with nanotubes. Such a grid would cut in half the amount of energy wasted by heat loss. Wow, coal plants would become more efficient and create less pollution, and solar's niche would be discovered. There is hope for small scale efficient electric generation. Thanks, skids.


Rothrock was trained as a nuclear engineer. He bemoans how the existing grid loses about half of its power in transmission due to heat loss on the lines, and how failures disrupt entire portions of the grid.

<snip>

A much more efficient system, Rothrock says, would be to have thousands, if not millions, more power sources -- such as solar-powered homes -- freely connected to the grid.

``The model is the Internet,'' he explains. ``It would be like Cisco routers -- if one data line fails, you reroute it with switches.''

Such a distributed system would also minimize exposure to security risks, he said. Three terrorist bomb detonations of the Bay Area's key switch-yards could take out the region's power for two or three days, he noted. And a more efficient grid would make it more feasible to plug hybrid cars into home power sockets.