Amory Lovins

Do we need big power plants?

Rocky Mountain Institute Chief Scientist, Feb 12, 09.

If I told you, “Many people need computing services, so we’d better build more mainframe computer centers where you can come run your computing task,” you’d probably reply, “We did that in the 1960s, but now we use networked PCs.” Or if I said, “Many people make phone calls, so we’d better build more big telephone exchanges full of relays and copper wires,” you’d exclaim, “Where have you been? We use distributed packet-switching.”

Yet if I said, “Many people need to run lights and motors, Wiis, and air conditioners, so we’d better build more giant power plants,” you’d probably say, “Of course! That’s the only way to power America.” Read the complete article.

[But] the original architecture is raising, not lowering, costs and failure rates: cheap and reliable power must now be made at or near customers.

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