A quick read through of today’s news post from EurActiv.com - “Microgeneration: Power to the people” is enlightening and educational. Interestingly, some of the site’s sponsors include American companies, Exxon and Shell Oil.
I have been accused by one reader, in a most negative way, of promoting the European way of doing business. I don’t think we have bragging rights in this country at the moment. A good look at the value of the U.S. Dollar in comparison to the Euro, our foreign debt, the state of our financial institutions, to name a few, give us pause to reflect. The day I close my mind to new ideas, and remain happy with the status quo, is the day you can bury me.
I’m just like every other middle class American right now who is looking for answers to what amounts to the bleakest of outlooks within my lifetime.
America’s very own Jeremy Rifkin known as a green economy guru and lecturer at the Wharton School of Business feels we are headed for a “third industrial revolution” geared towards low carbon technologies. His vision is described as “influential” in EU circles.
We have all of the same technologies available to us that they are using in Europe, we just don’t’ seem to be moving forward at the same pace. Promoting buildings that can provide their own power plants using microgeneration (aka distributed or decentralized generation), through an array of small and medium-scale generators of electricity: solar, wind, hydro, biomass and waste, is being encouraged in the EU, and not just on a small scale.
Rifkin’s vision would be a paradigm shift in the way electricity and heat are produced and consumed, changing existing electric infrastructures – most notably grids, used mostly for large-scale electric plants, and distributed over long distances, resulting in a considerable loss of energy. Local generation reduces loss and helps avoid congested areas in the transmission grid, and enables the use of by-product heat, improving overall system efficiencies. All of which enhance reliability and are more cost-effective.
Distributed generation industries in the EU calculate they can supply 50% of the current energy supply. Large producers refute the figure and reduce it to 10%. No surprise there.
All of this means a new way of doing business in the EU and the United States, and if history repeats itself, my guess is Europe will get to the finish line first.
EurActive.com is an interesting website to visit. Expand your horizons. More importantly, write your legislators, and tell them to fast forward to microgeneration. It will mean standing up to the utility giants.
Get ready...get set, Go!
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