Brighter | Special Episode 1 - Lessons from a power outage

Prosperity, and electric power, are so easy to take for granted.
In this special episode of ‘Brighter’, made during an extended power outage, Adam reflects on centralized power generation, which is fragile and controlled by a small group of people who often have short-sighted interests.
But solar power and batteries offer resilience, independence, and fairness. Their costs have fallen over 90% in the past decade and soon they will be the more economic option, too. When the costs of on-site generation are less than the cost of transmission alone, they will be irresistible.
The disruption has already begun and it will help solve the biggest challenges we face, like poverty and climate change.
Adam’s book, ‘Brighter: Optimism, Progress, and the Future of Environmentalism” is available on Amazon www.amazon.com... and as an audiobook on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes.
Visit the RethinkX Website: www.rethinkx.com
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[@eschreck814]

I'm a lead lineman at a utility (not too too far away from there) 😉. I agree with your overall sentiment, and I'll be the first one to point my finger at these utility company's and say they have been derelict in maintaining their system. But to "put it all underground" would be just unbelievably expensive. And underground does have problems also, and they take way longer to repair typically. I mean I could complain about the company for hours on end, but I'd rather eat my bagel. Either way, I'm all in on disruption, so believe me, I'm cheering for it. If it ever renders my job obsolete, I'll be living on a island by then. Cheers!

[@christianvanderstap6257]

I agree, but the local lines have been buried here in the Netherlands for a very long time and we basically live without power interruptions.

[@eschreck814]

@@christianvanderstap6257 there's lots of variables that come into play 🤷‍♂️ it can be a very good system under good conditions. But so can overhead lines.

[@SeekingBeautifulDesign]

From your professional perspective how do these arguments fare? 1. Spend underground burial investment on residential and commercial building solar instead. Put batteries in homes/commercial buildings and/or on local utility poles. Social benefits and grid resilience benefits. Presumably more than enough work to keep or expand utility jobs, enough capital expense to increase profits from the PUC and good marketing material. As well, no tearing up roads and felling trees in Treecity for underground burial. 2. Same as 1, but promote VehicleToGrid in EVs as well. Requires societal change to keep EVs plugged in during evening peak. e.g. staggered work hours to keep employees at home during peak or at office.->reduced rush hour traffic. More EV chargers at work to capture solar peak during midday. Could redefine required investment as capital cost for utility or get the money from elsewhere.

[@eschreck814]

@@SeekingBeautifulDesign those are interesting ideas. I can't pretend like I really know much from an engineering perspective. I wonder sometimes if you could potentially mount megapacks on poles or racks around the system (along with some solar fields where possible ). They could maybe be used (in essence) the same way we utilize residential transformers today. Would definitely relieve some of the stress on the traditional grid.

[@leonthiel5107]

@@SeekingBeautifulDesign I think that would be a great idea that would - for sure - support the energy transition globally while giving professionals new job opportunities in an essential market: Solar, Charging, Battery and heat pump installation.

[@dennisd9804]

This is an excellent reflection on how the energy disruption will empower individuals to adopt solar/battery storage, especially given GOD parity arriving and the declining cost curves seen as of recent. Where I live in Florida, the electricity lines are underground. I have not experienced any extended power outages since I've lived here. Economics are making this disruption happen quicker and scale faster. Thank you, Adam!

[@flutieflambert]

It’s not consumer price that drives disruption, it’s return on investment. Socialized transportation is much cheaper and greener than privatized cars, but Americans are deprived of the cheaper solution because there is no return on investment for capital (in fact, it’s a tax on capital), so capital successfully lobbied to destroy public trans to preserve their return on investment.

[@CitiesForTheFuture2030]

Many people still can't afford to purchase their own home energy systems - community energy (mini grids) can help. The cost of battery storage etc is shared. Distribured energy generation & storage contributes to grid resilience. Also, schools, libraries, welfare organisations can earn money for community projects, and farmers can earn extra income via agrivoltaics - instead of funding energy oligarchs!

[@michaeljames5936]

Thank you. The dissonance between, hoping for a brave new world and almost panicking- repeatedly, when I think of the terrifying, alternative, is a lot to sit with.

[@michaeloltmanns]

Northern Germany: LCoE of residential PV 69€/MWh incl. 30kWh LFP battery vs cost and tariffs for transmission 220€/MWh 😎

[@jjamespacbell]

While I do agree with most of your and Tony's predictions, there has to be a minimum cost for any product which is the cost of the raw materials

[@anacondara]

I love the whole idea of disruption in energy and superpower, but am still not clear whether recycling technology will keep up. How do we reconcile the huge amounts of solar panels with the need for a circular economy. Would love a video on that.

[@danielmadar9938]

Thank you. I've just published a work about the lack of resilience in Israel's power grid compared to a distributed grid.

[@Bellshazar]

Texas has recently seen record power demands and because of the heat thermal power plants have been forced to shut down. Yet there are no power outages and no spikes in electric bills because despite it's reputation Texas is the biggest investor in WSB in the USA.

[@zotter2542]

Well done

[@bobbresnahan8397]

There are several dimensions of our climate dilemma and the transition to emission-free energy. One is cost. Another is spreed of transition . Another is distance from generation to use. Cost and speed are essential. I think speed is the most important dimension at the moment. The faster we transition to clean energy and transportation, the lower the overall cost to humanity and our environment. Cost is born right now, so it is always an important factor. The cost of grid-scale solar and wind is several times less than the cost of rooftop solar. The distance is greater and that adds a cost, but a rational plan like the plan we did in the 1950s for our national highway system would greatly reduce the cost of distance which involves moving electricity on transmission and distribution lines. There was an MIT study on the Future of Solar done in 2014 that reported on this and made recommendations to government and industry. Rapid deployment of large-scale solar and wind generation supported by a national or international transmission grid carefully designed for optimum benefit -- that's what a savvy leadership would promote. Also, public ownership of this natural monopoly makes a lot of sense.

[@kenjohnson6101]

One thing I don't understand about this picture: According to Lazard's LCOE analysis, rooftop residential PV costs 11.7-28.2 cents/kWh, community & C&I costs 4.9-18.5 cents/kWh, and utility-scale is 2.4-9.6 cents/kWh (not including transmission, which might tip the balance more in favor of distributed generation). What accounts for those huge cost differences? If Lazard's LCOE went to zero, would all PV become zero-cost, or are residential and community, C&I dominated by other cost factors (installation, inverters, grid connection ...) that will continue to dominate? For another good exposition of this topic, see "California at the crossroads: How not to fumble the energy transformation" DOI 10.1016/B978-0-443-15591-8.00010-3

[@martinbeaumier7172]

Same problem in Quebec Canada

[@DougGrinbergs]

Are there any microgrids for emergency facilities? Who's powering home from F150 Lightning or Rivian? Electric school buses to power shelters?

[@celso6454]

Is there anything your average citizen should do besides spreading awareness? Or is it enough to sit back and wait until it is most economical to switch over to solar/wind/battery and then do accordingly.

[@goingballisticmotion5455]

I think you meant how this power outage sheds lack of light on the situation. 😂

[@hendrikdewilde-geisler5859]

Fun point: KZbin translated "god parity" with "god parody"🤣

[@SeekingBeautifulDesign]

To emphasize the message, a battery backup in your home would have contrasted with the dark neighbors and the gas generator neighbors. As a luminary, light might be in order.

[@dduffy7271]

His situation is infuriating. Short sighted bureaucracy of stifling.

[@ipdavid1043]

then use thorium powered and dont use EV at all.

[@kushalvora7682]

First lets build a commercial thorium plant that actually delivers on what's promised from it. Till now all the hype around thorium is theoretical and nothing is proven.

[@MattCasters]

Yeah, Thorium is like the multiverse or dark matter: doesn't exist until we actually figure it out.

[@christianvanderstap6257]

Still waiting for a 20kW unit. Until then solar + battery

[@ipdavid1043]

@@kushalvora7682 yes. it is up and running in South China. Google it

[@ipdavid1043]

@@MattCasters please like u are living in an underworld, not knowing it is already built...really think the world only run by usa...

[@Steuben1978]

God parity? What nonsense! battery prices started to rise 2022.

[@christianvanderstap6257]

Power prices also quadrupled in 2022, your point?

[@GregHassler]

Have you looked at fossil fuel prices lately?

[@Bellshazar]

I think you kind of missed the point of the argument. Having all your power needs generated on site is cheaper than having it transmitted to you. The exact cost of the battery just means it would take a bit longer to get your money back.

[@s.lionelmcauley4455]

Take a breath, storage prices are trending down.

[@grizzlymartin1]

Some of the pushback comes from the natural disaster destruction vulnerabilities of solar panels, etc. that is often seen. Here in the mountain states we see hail periodically that would devastate solar panels if I had them on my townhome roof - even if/when townhomes/condos work out the economics of shared ownership. Obviously, energy is transitioning to decentralized. The sooner the better. But lots of hurdles to invent our way over, under and around. Which only means lots of opportunity.

[@grizzlymartin1]

Perfect closing. It is precisely the message that the common person must be empowered to see for themselves and the greatest challenge of all to this inevitable transition. It’s one thing to change the source and movement of an electron - but an entirely different science to accomplish the same of a thought. Talk about “disruption...” Ugh!