How We Build Socialist Power (Literally)

[@OurChangingClimate]

Do you know what kind of energy power's your home? Get Nebula using my link for 40% off: go.nebula.tv/occ Gift Nebula to friends (or enemies): gift.nebula.tv/occ Watch my bonus video on 100% renewable energy here: nebula.tv/videos/occ-can-we-really-achieve-100-renewable-power

[@Celis.C]

Is it possible yet to pay for Nebula without requiring a credit card? And if not, will it support WERO when it gets released?

[@Turdfergusen382]

Will you please make an episode on the 2000s era Compressed air cars that were going to be mass produced in South Africa. These were viable replacements for everyday commuters. No fuel no emissions.

[@doofkhwetty]

Correction: I don't know how you pronounce "Eskom" but regardless, they do not cut power in poor black neighbourhoods so they can power rich white communities. Where did you get that from? Everybody gets loadshedding, from rural areas to cities. Lower class suburbs to upper class suburbs. The only people who have their area removed from the roster are politicians with enough access.

[@CDeCollibus]

i dont really care about the socialist/capitalist lean on this position from a cybersecurity standpoint, we cant have companies stand alone when theyre attacked and held ransom by cyber criminals. private companies spend MILLIONS maybe BILLIONS per year on ransomware payments and hacks. if the utilities are controlled by government at least our infrastructure will be secured, and not siphoning tons of dark money out of the country under the noses of americans.

[@zhcultivator]

Please consider making a video on Mutual Insurance*.

[@rcjo2]

I grew up in a rural area. Our electric company was a co-op, owned by the customers. We need to go back to that, instead of the corporate greed model.

[@Tripskull]

You don't understand. Greed is the greatest of human virtues! There is no other/better way to organize society or culture. Even god is obsessed with money! You need to check out the prosperity gospels and you would understand. The universe is driven by greed. Nature? Greed. Squirrels trade amongst themselves with acorns, AND there's squirrels better than the other squirrels and they hoard trillions Of Acorns. The billionaire squirrels all happen to be the squirrels with the lightest hair color too! This means something... Maybe lighter color fur is smarter and better than dark color squirrel...😮

[@jamesmurphy9426]

Privatization is the Way

[@twistedsteeltv6130]

​@@jamesmurphy9426 A statement with zero reasoning and sources is weak.

[@piku5637]

@@jamesmurphy9426 bourgeois shill

[@R_Alexander029]

Consumer owned power plants sounds good, away from the hands of big governments or Wall street.

[@TCSGaming-qj2sw]

For-profit utilities are a very bad idea.

[@AWSVids]

Nothing essential should be for-profit. Only things considered luxuries/recreational should be for-profit. Food, water, energy, housing, healthcare, transportation and communication should all be public and as freely accessible as possible.

[@Luchoedge]

Indeed! Also, nothing for profit is a good Idea. If it needs a profit incentive to be done, then nobody wants it or needs it. Real useful, fun, or interesting things have inherent incentives.

[@georgekostaras]

Just look at the water systems in England

[@jchoneandonly]

​@@Luchoedge Can't tell if you're trolling or serious. If trolling, good job. If serious, what kind of insane drugs are you on?

[@jchoneandonly]

​@@AWSVidsyeah! Breadlines galore! We'll all live like Ethiopia! You don't need 3 meals a day comrade! Just eat sheetrock!

[@UrdnotChuckles]

I'm very much in favour of an interconnected network of microgrids. It would likely build up a heck of a lot more resiliency than we currently have in a lot of the world.

[@nfzeta128]

Yea no big grid to go down and affect everywhere. A couple grids here and there go down and they can easily get energy from other small grids until repaired.

[@vylbird8014]

In residential areas, yes. The microgrid approach doesn't work if you have a small but really demanding load, like many industrial processes - you're still going to need some long-distance and high-capacity power transmission. But the inclusion of microgrids can provide essential resiliency for residential areas and make the use of small-scale renewable power easier.

[@barry28907]

Interesting video. But I think that a detail that might be missed is that a grid (of any size) is a single large 'machine' that (at least currently) must be managed centrally. This is because supply must be ramped up and down to match demand, minute by minute. In order for local microgrids to support each other, they have to cede control to the larger grid. It could be pretty hard to do that. For example, to obtain local resiliency during a storm, a local grid might logically disconnect from the wider grid. But that reduces the resiliency of the larger grid. Who gets to decide? (Edit) I think that the idea of Packetized Energy Management is promising here. See the short intro on the Just Have a Think channel.

[@coolioso808]

Check out The Solutions Project and Mark Z Jacobson with No Miracles Needed. A pathway to 100% wind, water, solar energy for all uses is already possible! Decentralized! Storage and batteries! It's amazing. Let's get on it. Build a local solidarity economy with Mutual Aid Network, Library Socialism, Not-For-Profit Worker Co-Operatives, Worker's Strike Back organizing and activism.

[@nfzeta128]

@@vylbird8014 No even then it works. The scale is just a bit bigger. On an industrial building the space for solar or even wind is greater, you usually have more area around you for batteries and such as well. Big industrial areas can have a grid system of their own and be fine.

[@twistedsteeltv6130]

Energy, healthcare, social care, water and anything the public as a collective need to function SHOULD be nationalised/owned by the people. It's literally a security risk to not be. It's not very patriotic to sell off your own utilities. It's in the best interests of the nation to own their own services. Private ownership is literally just some rich people skimming off the top and overcharging the people.

[@user-gu9yq5sj7c]

Second Thought has a video called American patriotism is weird. Ironically, many American patriots are destroying their country and people. Not patriotic. Many of those American patriots are for hyper capitalism. And yes like you said, capitalism causes business owners to sell parts of the country to foreigners or to outsource labor and other things for money. Things that capitalists or conservatives complain about but their way causes.

[@Zyo117]

Canada just had the two main rail companies lock out their workers (corporate forcing a strike), and the immediate reaction of the government was to force binding arbitration because it would have severely impacted the Canadian economy. Sounds like we should have kept Canadian National as an actual national Canadian company instead of giving it to investors.

[@pebblepod30]

I think owned as a co-op is much better, bc in the future there might be a nefarious govt again with little desire for public interest.

[@doctorinternet8695]

​@@pebblepod30The owning of stuff is a right granted by the state. A "nefarious" government could just as easily take away a coop as it could privatize a public property...

[@tealkerberus748]

And accommodation. Start by every country banning the ownership of any sort of land in their country by people who don't live in their country. Citizen or permanent resident doesn't matter - you shouldn't be allowed to own land in a country you don't live in. Then push out the rest of the corporates. Housing where you own from the dirt to the roof, should be owned by individuals. If you own more than one of those, there should be a vice tax on that. If two or more people each own a house but choose to live together, they can rent out the spares, and that will provide enough rental houses for people who don't want to buy a house to have somewhere to live. Housing in apartment blocks should be owned by government - the ultimate co-op. Apartment buildings degrade over time and they're not easy to renovate like houses are. Eventually the building is worn out and the only economic choice is to bulldoze it and start again. That sucks if you own your own apartment, but government can afford to bulldoze and rebuild and it can afford to provide alternative housing for the tenants while the block is being rebuilt. And government *isn't* just in it to maximise their profits like a corporate landlord, so they're not going to rip off their tenants.

[@aealaeddin]

The video title and the thumbnail are everything. Love the more explicit socialist angles in your videos.

[@WanderingExistence]

Socialism isn't a dirty word 💪

[@EvropaAeternvm]

@@WanderingExistenceit is when it takes a fundamentally deluded view on human nature.

[@DrizzyB]

​@@EvropaAeternvm it'd still be much better if we used a system that didn't reward the worst aspects of human nature like greed and corruption.

[@WanderingExistence]

@@EvropaAeternvm As if capitalist knows what 'human nature' is... Half of you can't even understand behavioral economics!

[@sethmiller2532]

​@@EvropaAeternvm The idea that people are fundamentally inclined to cooperate isn't delusional. It's literally just what anyone who pays attention to history notices. We didn't get societies and civilizations without cooperating. A few hundred years of everyone being encouraged to trample everyone else for their own gain doesn't refute the entire rest of human history.

[@reyluna0]

Surprised you put Adjuntas here! Gracias from Puerto Rico 🇵🇷🤍

[@reyluna0]

Dude I can't make this up THE POWER JUST WENT OUT For the second time today in San Juan, Santurce

[@reyluna0]

Update it came back but for how long

[@平和-v1z]

Severely underrated channel, great and very well researched video as always, Charlie!

[@18booma]

The South African Eskom issues go deeper than just turning off working class areas while supplying wealthy areas. The grid is public utility, but it uses private companies for maintenance. So the private maintenance companies sabotaged the power stations to keep stable work coming in. The public utility also uses private coal suppliers. So private coal mining companies who had close ties to the ANC government (then VP Ramaphosa had a coal-mining deal with Glencore and investments in others) supplied Eskom with subpar coal, while the high quality stuff got exported for even more profit. We will never reach an energy transition while those in power profit off of fossil fuels.

[@DaveE99]

Everything always comes down to the incentives built into a system.

[@thebaldfox711]

TVA Nuclear Operations Worker here. Thanks for the shoutout... we're working hard every day to ensure reliable, safe, clean, low-cost energy is available for the people of The Valley. I am extremely proud of our work and hope that we can continue for many many years to come. That said, I want to take a moment to give a brief sit-rep on the current state of TVA and our generation capacity. So, we are very much making strides to rid ourselves of coal powered plants. We've decommissioned and imploded all but 4 (I think) of our coal plants with plans to have them all off-line by 2035, which is great environmentally speaking... However, we have largely replaced them with natural gas plants which while "cleaner" are still fossil fuel powered plants and their source of fuel is primarily fracked gas these days which, on the whole, is a serious methane release source which is, arguably, is considerably worse for our changing climate than the coal plants were! We have diminished our overall grid capacity by shutting down coal plants by a bit, but we have not built a new nuclear plant in some 40 years and with the ever increasing heat and the burgeoning EV market we are at a rather precarious place. We would LOVE for everyone in the Valley to swap to EVs, but we can't come close to supporting that kind of grid demand because don't have that kind of generating capacity. We've basically backed ourselves into a corner, in that we're constantly having to purchase energy from outside sources which is very expensive which eats into profits which makes it more difficult to expand resources and fund new projects. It looked like we would possibly complete the Bellefonte plant in Alabama a while back, but instead we sold it to a Trump Donor Billionaire grifter who embroiled us in litigation for years, only for us to chose not to complete the two unit plant and instead put all of our eggs into the Small Modular Reactor basket. There is a site near Oak Ridge Tennessee which has been selected as the test site for a new SMR plant, though the final design has not been selected and the plant will not be complete for another decade or so. I love the concept and I hope that we can come to a place where we have a standardized design which can be cheaply replicated across the entire service area, but I hate to see a nearly complete nuclear plant just sitting there unused. On top of that the current regulatory situation is extremely burdensome when it comes to new reactor designs. The nuclear industry is quite mature now and also very risk averse, as it should be, so there aren't many companies willing to spend the capital necessary to, in essence, bribe the NRC to make the necessary tech-spec changes and allowances for new technologies. Our old water cooled reactors require very stringent and specific systems for cooling and containment which must be reliable and redundant, which makes them abhorrently expensive and has us locked into a defined regulatory regimen which does not translate to non-water cooled designs since new designs require new regulations. Moving away from water cooled designs has been hampered by the Federal government thanks to lobbying and the major industry players (Looking at you, GE!) have been very reluctant to give up on their gillette model cash cows for decades. We could have been solidly into the molten salt reactor era for 30-40 years now were it not for the powers-that-be trying to maintain the status quo and the fossil fuel companies being so successful at propagandizing the populace. However and thankfully we have also been adding quite a bit of commercial solar capacity, though I would greatly prefer to highly subsidized (through lucrative buy-back and zero-interest financing programs) residential solar PV. What better way to democratize the energy grid than by handing the working class the means of electrical production! We get plenty of sun here in the Tennessee Valley and it would be a real boon to the people who TVA was supposedly built for. As it stands TVA currently has a rather poor residential solar program with no subsidies of any kind and a meager buyback payout of around 3.5 cents per KWh. In my terminally Libertarian Socialist mind, the most ideal situation would be that TVA would become a worker owned cooperative (extremely unlikely short of outright revolution, ha) with it's primary focus being on renewable energy via solar and nuclear with laser-like attention focused on development of new thorium fueled molten salt reactors funded by the surplus value created by it's workers in order to forge new paths into the clean energy frontier... but nobody around here listens to what I have to say on that, ha! Anyways, keep up the good work! ⚡Power to the People!⚡

[@Allen_b-fx7zo]

⚡️Well said sir.⚡️ Nice to have educated folks in the industry note their concerns, hurdles, and aspirations for a sustainable future. Thanks ⚡️Power to the People⚡️

[@curiousbobcat512]

As a TVA (KUB) customer, thank you.

[@thebaldfox711]

@@curiousbobcat512 😘

[@thebaldfox711]

@@Allen_b-fx7zo Funnily enough, while I work at an electric power generating plant I am having a solar panel system installed at my house sometime later this year. Imdoingmypart.gif

[@space.youtube]

Don't sell yourself short, you're clearly pretty good at "propagandising" your thorium MSR pipe dream yourself. I see through your cynical leftist buzz word astroturfing attempt.

[@andrewreynolds912]

Im a gen z socialist american, and i approve of this. i love this channel for many reasons for its great sources of lef'tist of content and more. However, many dont understand what socialism is. We are taught to ha'te it but know so little about it. Edit: h*ly s*** this blew up thanks guys

[@faithslayer202]

There's a KZbin channel: Socialism For All / S4A who covers it and does audiobooks. I highly recommend the channel on how to learn on Socialism through the Audiobooks.

[@AutrevmlM]

​@@faithslayer202 Yeah S4A is Great

[@socire72]

@@AutrevmlMhe’s alright. I think he’s wrong on religion though, he says its incompatible with socialism but I have the view similar to those like Fidel Castro or Zyuganov, that religious feeling when in support of social change can be a good thing

[@AutrevmlM]

​@@socire72 Also Castro was in no way a Communist and he sold out Cuba to the Khrushchevites social imperialism and made Cuba a sugar Colony rather than the industrialization and Socialist Programme of Che.

[@theceseb1736]

Socialism can be defined as worker's control over the means of production and the replacement of the capitalist state by a worker's council democracy

[@mynamesnotshanekid813]

The climate activist to socialist pipeline is real.

[@scientificaly_restful_one]

as it should be

[@mynamesnotshanekid813]

@@scientificaly_restful_one mhm

[@michaelregis1015]

The pipeline went the other way in my case lol.

[@wesleylloyd3403]

Is there any other way to take care of the human race?

[@mansory7996]

@@scientificaly_restful_one that's why nobody takes you seriously

[@grmpEqweer]

Here in Houston, we were hit by Hurricane Beryl. A CAT 1 STORM. Our deregulated power corporation, Centerpoint, _took up to 2 weeks to get service fully restored to all customers._ Edit: in a heat wave, of course. 🤬

[@MrPePeLePuo]

And they're trying to get their customers to pay for the billions of repairs too

[@mathmeetsmusic]

IMO one of the most successful brandings I've seen is that of "natural monopolies." We we should instead call them "naturally socializable." Because that's a lot more efficient for everyone than having multiple companies pay for high upfront costs which they must pass on to customers.

[@chemreac1]

‘Local community councils’ are not necessarily just all going to say lets do whatever's best for climate change. They’re gonna say lets do whatever's best for our community whether that helps fight climate change or not. You need a governing central authority to overturn the will of individual communities for fighting climate change and for the greater good. You basically clarify this later though. Great vid

[@socire72]

I agree, though it shouldn’t overreach it’s power

[@doc14295]

Based scientific socialist approach

[@planefan082]

Central mandates to ensure everyone's working together in the same direction are good. But the consent of the governed is critical, socialism can exist and remain democratic. Can't get rid of processes that make sure that the government is working for the people, to make working in the name of your nation worthwhile

[@nfzeta128]

The systems themselves are renewable and no carbon there are very few if any that could go against climate change. Going back to centralized control defeats the point.

[@Charlie-et4td]

Agreed, very silly idea of having "community microgrids" that are interlinked and share power when you could just yknow, have a global/continental energy grid. There's no need to make them less efficient for the sake of essentially just aesthetics.

[@notsosuavemate]

0:20 it’s called planned obsolescence

[@RingOfDoom19]

Extremely grateful to be an Omaha native and have the power of a public utility service in OPPD. It may not be perfect, but it beats the capitalist monopoly nightmare any day.

[@Definitely_chronicallytired]

I hope that these words will find their way to the hearts and minds of those who can bring about the transformative change that is so needed in the world right now

[@DaveE99]

Plus all the evidence we have at this point is that making social services for profit always reduces quality because it just incentivizes them to offer the worst product at lowest price

[@Neuromancer2310]

Source ?

[@JohnAranita]

Hawaiian Electric Company went all green a few years ago. Their rates are regulated by the state.

[@coolioso808]

Just a guess, but I think Hawaii could run on 100% clean, renewable energy with baseload from geothermal and then aided by solar, wind and water/tides.

[@mauricio9564]

“Socialism is workers power+electrification”-Vladimir Lenin

[@alan2102X]

“Ecosocialism is worker-owned and controlled renewable energy”-Me

[@robbedeboer2728]

Very interesting story, i had never even thought about this issue before, thank you for your videos!

[@peaceleader7315]

One day, a free power and power grid will be built for not nation states but for our one world government ambitions and mankind.

[@RextheRebel]

That sounds like a day i do not want to be here for.

[@peaceleader7315]

@RextheRebel if you don't like humanity don't let your mum know that you're born.. hmmmm.. listen to what I say and give some thought.

[@Dpmt]

In Washington State we have a robust network of Public Utility Districts which cover both the city of Seattle and most of the states rural counties. These, of course, provide power more cheaply, more greenly and more reliably then their private neighbors. These, once established, can compel private utilities to hand over their infrastructure. So there will eventually be a fight to properly establish new public utility districts in the state. I'm guessing at a county level. This public utility districts can also have multiple functions, be it water, garbage collection or even acting as ISPs.

[@aturchomicz821]

Only when it distributes electricity for free though. We have seen in the past 4 years how Viennas municipal power company, "Wien Energie", raised prices beyond anything reasonable because it is "profit oriented". So much for Socialist Vienna😐😐

[@hotlinerevachol5436]

I think that's more of an issue to do with framing socialism in the liberal sense as "when government does stuff" and less in the marxist sense of "transitional phase to communism". Obviously Vienna can have a municipally controlled energy grid but if the government remains austerity driven than it will shift the weight of maintaining such a hollowed out service onto the proletariat. This is why it is not enough to just have public utilities be nationalized/democratized but to have a wider socialist system, regardless of ideological stance. Otherwise you'll have a few good years/decades of cheap and efficient services under a social democratic/reformist socialist government that get taken away in a short term by a liberal/conservative government

[@WanderingExistence]

Do you mean "for free" or "for cost"... Because everything takes resources, nothing is free.

[@gregorymalchuk272]

It's not moral to set the electricity price below the cost to produce. Workers had to labor to run the wires, mine the coal, fire the furnaces, maintain the dams, install the solar panels, and build the wind turbines.

[@willbass2869]

@@WanderingExistence dood! Shutupforreal.....these goobers can't explain basic intro economics 301. They don't know the difference between free and no cost. Still waiting for ME to pay off their student loan

[@ENetArch]

To reach a broader audience, this should be positioned as a discussion between centralized and decentralized power generation. Where, the individual home owner is allowed to generate their own power and sell it to their neighbor, or not. Then community power grid management authorities should distribution process. And, it should be noted that most community utility initiatives could be managed via this means. Corporations are not needed to manage a community's utilities and resources.

[@antemeridiemwolf]

Your videos give me hope. Thank you, Charlie!

[@samotte8279]

I live in Nebraska, so our state is entirely public power and has some of the cheapest electricity in the US!

[@trainzmarcel2074]

wonderful video!!

[@WanderingExistence]

We need hybrid worker-consumer cooperative that are democratically responsible to workers and consumers rather than being just being a vehicle to extract profits for shareholders. Literally, power to the people! E: Did You Know: most of the electrical utilities in the northwestern United States are provided by consumer cooperatives? This because it costs a lot to lay line over what's the expensive Western US, but people still need electricity. Coops are there for the benefit of the members rather than creating profit.

[@EvropaAeternvm]

Then form them. You can do this under the current system

[@Ara-wo5ho]

Although I feel like coops are a necessary step towards a fully worker owned, fully egalitarian, and democratic economy and society (although I would prefer more of a focus on consensus, discussion, and empirical data rather than just pure majority rule) , I don’t think replacing all private traditional capitalist businesses with coops is socialism itself. That’s because their main focus would still be delivering profit to their individual coops. But it does make me think about if this were the structure of the economy and these coops merged and monopolized, if that would then fully eliminate the profit motive.

[@EvropaAeternvm]

@@Ara-wo5ho I don’t think you really thought that through.

[@WanderingExistence]

@@EvropaAeternvm Lol, what a low tier, unoriginal comment with no understanding of material capital biases within the current economy.

[@WanderingExistence]

@@Ara-wo5ho Cooperatives aren't built to maximize profit, and profit isn't a bad thing. You have to have surplus to be able to continue to provide value to employees what matters is how it's utilized and invested. Socialism is the worker or social control of the means of production and how the subsequent surplus is utilized. Profit isn't wrong, it just shouldn't be maximized and it should just be socialized.

[@mrwi]

State PUC attorney here. This perspective is incredibly important considering the energy regulatory space is dominated by professionals and experts that presume decentralized, democratic power planning will fail and/pr be less reliable than investor-owned utility planning. That’s the system we have, the people that run and regulate it presume there can’t be any other way. Lift this model up and check out TVA history and NY’s proposal. Super interesting. Thanks for making such a high-quality video.

[@gljames24]

Lots of the grid is basically socialist even if the workers don't realize it. If you don't get your power from an IOU, it comes from a consumer cooperative which is member owned. As a Mutualist, I'd prefer a worker consumer cooperative where the management was elected and truly market socialist, but that's just me.

[@mrping2603]

Equitable and environmental energy!

[@willbass2869]

@@mrping2603 That's called a campfire. Now go fetch some wood.....and forget about electric ANYTHING

[@mrping2603]

@@willbass2869 what are you talking about? Environmental energy can be wind, solar, hydro, nuclear. Firewood is inefficient and unsustainable

[@willbass2869]

@@mrping2603 firewood is the *ONLY* sustainable energy source....and it's carbon neutral!!

[@alastairhewitt380]

While we are at it, can employees be granted the legal right to vote for managers (if there are going to be any at all), executives, CEOs, and who sits on the board of directors? This power being placed in the hands of shareholders is bad for everyone and the structure of our organisations and who has power within them needs to change

[@dion789]

Very interesting video. Nice to see such practical examples of how to make the power grid suitable for the future.

[@benzur3503]

The limits on energy transference arent only monetary. Transferring energy across distances loses energy along the way. How would a hurricane filled half a continent set a sufficient amount of infrastructure to be able to have an overabundance of non storable energy count for such a large field? Alternative sources of energy do need to be researched to deal with the increasing urgency of global warming and climate catastrophe, but solar energy has no answer at its current form. Maybe a revolutionary discovery in electricity transference or storage could make massive solar farms capable, but without such or other developments the technology is not ready to account for half of the current energy demand.

[@OutsideSometimes]

I need to look at what they did in PR. That is pretty awesome, avoids some of the issues of a large, central, state owned option while maintaining community ownership and focus. Very anarchic of them haha. I dig it.

[@itranscendencei7964]

2:45 A technical correction: They don't produce energy. They just extract it and move it from one place to another, and the electricity doesn't flow through the wires. The wires simply act as a guide for the electricity, but it's not literally flowing through the wires.

[@vylbird8014]

True for a physicist, but the model used by electrical engineers assumes the power flows through the wires. It's the material and geometry of the wires that defines capacity, and the wires that gets hot. A model in which energy flows through the wires is a lot easier to work with - the equations are just very basic arithmetic - and the predictions it makes are accurate in most situations. It's only when designing electromagnetic machines that one needs to delve into the horrors of vector calculus.

[@itranscendencei7964]

@@vylbird8014 They assume that it travels through the wires because it makes their equations and their work easier. That doesn't mean that it's accurate. Physics are physics. They don't magically change because you're an electrical engineer. They are constant. Electricity does not flow through wires, and there is a lot of documented science to back it up. There's even a couple YT videos that explain it quite well by Vertasium.

[@itranscendencei7964]

They assume that it travels through the wires because it makes their equations easier, but that doesn't mean that it's accurate. Physics are physics. They don't suddenly change because you're an electrical engineer. They are constant. The science behind it not traveling through the wires is well documented.

[@vylbird8014]

@@itranscendencei7964 All models are wrong, but some are useful. You're right, yes - but the model you are using, even if more accurate, is not the appropriate choice of model for this situation. You don't need relativity to calculate the travel time of a train, and you don't need Maxwell's equations to calculate the capacity of an electrical wire.

[@itranscendencei7964]

@@vylbird8014 I mean... Yeah?... I never said that it was needed for anything in particular at all, nor did I mention anything about models. All I said is that energy is not produced, it's harnessed and that the energy from electricity doesn't flow through the wires like water in a tube, it travels through the fields.

[@KenzieTheKat]

for a centralized grid (I'm not the best in this subject so please correct me if I'm wrong) wouldn't hydro quebec be a good example? Being a goverment owned company, it was created because of poor rural electrification in canada and high costs imposed by local monopolises. Now a majority of it's power generation is renewable and canada has one of the lowest electricity costs in the world.

[@alansegura5953]

I loved this video. Full of small proposals to improve things locally and in the short term; but also pushing forward the more radical and global agenda needed to bring about a large scale sustainable change. Real dialectical thinking!

[@storytimebuffet]

Finally someone is talking about this! 🎉❤

[@10-OSwords]

With SMRs we have limitless energy widely distributed, completely eliminating the need for one state to buy energy from another. & nuclear waste is far more reusable than has been done in the past.

[@Resuone]

And China started developing the first thorium reactor to be completed in 8 years.

[@dl-zf9dj]

❤❤❤❤ great job!!!!! 😊

[@ComradeCatpurrnicus]

Necessities are always better in the hands of the people, not the private hands of greedy and unaccountable wealthy individuals and corporations.

[@freenando75]

in europe we can self organize a "local comunity of energy", where one puts solar pannels in one place and the local community have a discount on the bill, according to production ( and local consumption),, a great idea

[@linush8670]

Great video!

[@justinwest4923]

Yes!!! This is what we need! Concrete ideas and inspiration for the future! People (like me) need to see what's possible and how! I hope this video contains these things; I'm about to start watching now... EDIT: Looks like the stuff I was really hoping for is in a Nebula video. Good video, anyway.

[@mattylite7]

Really wish we exibited so.e origonality and decouple from spcialist biz words. This is the land of red scare you need to adapt your language to people that are programmed to have an alergic reaction to "socialism".

[@singingway]

Hi OCC! I have a couple of questions! 1. I'm a nebula member. Is there no way to comment in Nebula? 2. Would you consider using other terminology than "socialism"? Making up a new word? Since "socialism" not only comes with a lot of baggage, but it is widely misunderstood and misinterpreted, even misrepresented by historical examples. Yet I when I ask any socialist if they would consider using new words for their future vision -- they bristle with Uncompromising Principles. They tell me the word has to be honored, for the struggles of the past, for the history it encompasses, and the entire United States must be educated to understand the meaning properly. Since I've been educating about climate change for ten years and -- see how hard that is -- I don't hold out much hope for their education project. Wouldn't it be better to drop the old "isms" (as they are all was-isms now!) as none of them are fit to purpose for the enormous climate project humanity must accomplish. What we need is not harkening back to historical examples, but innovative words and concepts to lead us towards new visions of the world.

[@hydroxyl5130]

Thank you for your articulations

[@andy9735]

Fab video as always

[@Superneuf70]

Its actually quite simple, go off the grid. For those who can, install solar with battery storage, possibly even a small wind turbine. My parents did this, no more power bills, and they payed for the entire set-up in 5 years. Some areas, the power company, may actually buy excess power from you.

[@matthewmcree1992]

Why not include nuclear power as part of this publicly owned grid? We need cutting-edge technology to reduce the amount of work that the proletariat has to do on a daily basis (while also producing all the goods that every person needs and much of what they will want - even if we abolish the value form). And nuclear power is the most spatially efficient energy source, allowing for the ability to leave forests alone and even to reforest while also producing as much energy as humanity could need. This is why I am opposed to degrowth.

[@gregorymalchuk272]

And nuclear has opportunities for district heating and cooling.

[@TheAmericanAmerican]

As someone who works as a solar PV engineer, I 100% agree with you! Renewable energies + Nuclear energy is the only way we will get off of fossil fuels fast enough to mitigate the climate change catastrophe!

[@AnonymousCaveman]

My 1 thing that I have an issue with fro nuclear power is the nuclear waste. We still don't know what to do with it and a lot of power plants just bury it.

[@valoriethechemist]

Large scale energy production likely shouldn't be considered. In the case of nuclear, the resources to build such plants and speed at which we can do so don't even impact emissions. So there are simply better options if we're looking at the "what reduces the true problem" and not what's the most energy or most costs effective. And that doesn't even get into the heat and water vapor produced and the impact to local environments (where climate impacts are occurring the most).

[@valoriethechemist]

@@TheAmericanAmericanwe more likely need to be considering taking entire industry sectors offline. Especially the ones that create commutes and energy drains for no reason whatsoever except that they generate more debt and therefore profit for the entities involved.

[@iidahuhtala7011]

as a energy engineer student i reeeally like the idea. In finland the grid is for the goverment and its a better system id guess but still bunch of people and energy companies are for profit. And makes me think of what will happen when the energy prices are starting to go even negative. You basically will get paid when u use energy bc theres bunch of renewables at times. And another thing id want to see waaay more are gascars, you literally can make it out of any organic waste basically and make fertilizer at the same time, which is usually made with fossil fuels. And no bloody batteries that are an issue with evs cause of the dirty cobalt

[@kevinmcgrane4279]

I had friends in TX when the grid failed in the winter. They posted FB photos of themselves in their idling car, trying to stay warm and alive. We must end private energy companies.

[@willbass2869]

@@kevinmcgrane4279 you know Texas is either #1 or #2 in renewable energy production, right? The wind turbines iced up.....couldn't turn....resulting in no electricity to run the pressurizing pumps that move the gas in the pipeline system.....because whereas Texas used to allow natgas from the pipeline to be used to power pumps it was Green environmental laws (from Washington D.C.) that mandated electric powered pipeline pressurizing pumps......thus, when no electricity happens then the natural gas for heating my house stops. You're welcome....(Yes, I survived the winter storm, thankfully)

[@CaptainG-xs3yo]

Thanks 👍

[@JugglinJellyTake01]

Replacing 100% fossil fuel energy with 100% renewable energy does not need the same capacity. Around 2/3 rds of energy is involved in converting gas, coal or oil to electricity which has around 25% efficiency, fractional distillation of oil to to its components, transporting those different fuels in trucks. Taking 3 barrels of oil out of the ground requires 1 barrel of oil, 66% efficiency. A ICE car is 25% efficient bringing the life cycle efficiency of a car down to 0.25*66= 16.5% efficiency. That doesn't even include fractional distillation and transport to gas stations. The efficiency of an ICE car is less than 10% over its fuel lifecycle. If you built 100 wind turbines and razed 90 of them to the ground the fossil fuel companies would accuse you of price fixing and profiteering yet this is exactly what they do pushing an inefficient fuel. Bigger turnover per MWh means bigger profits and bigger salaries and bonuses for execs so they can justify their pay is less than 1% for managing such a turnover. Now consider that 2/3 rds inefficiency and reduce exec pay by 2/3 rds and you can see why they don't like efficiency yet they point at publicly owned public services as being inefficient.

[@lostbutfreesoul]

This is also why Oil Companies want to keep Fossil Fuel cars. Even worse Efficacy rates, hence better for profits!

[@naberville3305]

In turn however. The low capacity factor of renewables means you probably still do need a nearly equivalent or greater installed capacity.

[@Turdfergusen382]

I threw up in my mouth a bit to hear Nebula has welcomed Johnny Harris on the platform. 🤮

[@socire72]

Quite literally funded by the WEF

[@gapsule2326]

Gamoras death hit her hard.

[@felix_kunx]

I was in Texas when the first winter storm hit. Most of my city lost power and a few of my pipes burst. The infrastructure is in for it if something doesn't change.

[@YourCapyFrenBigly_3DPipes1999]

You make an excellent point - how these new power utility "non-profits" are managed is just as crucial. We need better tools- AND we need the power to use these tools wisely.

[@mikeohawk95]

An idea build mini hydro enengy turbines in outer gutters to collect enegy for the rainwater and redirect the gutter flow into water tanks then the sewers for personal water supply provide filers to filter out trash and sytem to easily clean it out when needed

[@vivalaleta]

YES. Make it so!

[@Barbara-jn2gw]

This is the absolute best video I have ever seen. Wish I had ten thumbs

[@barry28907]

Interesting video. But I think that a detail that might be missed is that a grid (of any size) is a single large 'machine' that (at least currently) must be managed centrally. This is because supply must be ramped up and down to match demand, minute by minute. In order for local microgrids to support each other, they have to cede control to the larger grid. It could be pretty hard to do that. For example, to obtain local resiliency during a storm, a local grid might logically disconnect from the wider grid. But that reduces the resiliency of the larger grid. Who gets to decide? (Edit) I think that the idea of Packetized Energy Management is promising here. See the short intro on the Just Have a Think channel. It's a bit of a 'free-market' approach, however.

[@LeeCarlson]

The key is to recognize that utilities are owned by investors. This means that we have to leverage the people who wish to benefit from the grid into taking ownership by investing in it. Socialist power is still "investor-owned" because the monies used to support the grid are now coming from the taxes levied by the government.

[@toyotaprius79]

Phenomenal stuff

[@Mr.MasterOfTheMonsters]

Sadly, there are some places that first need a lot of work before any of this can be done. 5 minutes from where I live, a small residential area was built over a decade ago (one of those full of small, cheap and copy-pasted houses, owned by big corpo and that take 40 years to be paid). Every house came with a couple of BIG solar panels on the roof, probably not enough to sustain a house by itself, but it's something. Well, this is a poor area on the outskirts of the city. Those panels lasted a few moths before all of them were gone. (except for a couple of houses that are probably where the culprits live...)

[@robumf]

I like someone to estimate the cost on a micro energy in comparison, As of now, US. we can place solar and wind on personal property but the property don't use that electricity. It goes to the grid. How about calculate 75% of peak. stored to a battery bank, maybe four hour backup. and have the grid change the battery away from peak hours. If the building are physically close there is an option to create small clusters then connect to the grid. This one step should extend the current infrastructural by 20% Increase the quantity of green energy at lower cost. Simplify control of power to the grid. Could even have more efficacy with a 48V DC standardization and priority protocol. Many 12/24/48 V DC appliance available now. Still would need to figure out the recyclable at end of lifetime.

[@Tivis7]

Love the thumbnail

[@samuelrosander1048]

Organizing around democracy is the only pathway towards that future. If you need help but find it daunting there are 4 links in my profile to get you started. One is for unionization, but the other 3 are "from scratch" guides (2 articles + my blog). Yoda had it wrong: Do, or do not; trying is still doing, but sometimes with less success. If you don't start then don't expect others to do it for you. This is an effort that will require everyone, not "the right people in the right positions" or people with special organizing abilities or "talents." Democracy is a rejection of elitist thinking, not its proponent. Likewise, you get the democracy that you work to create. All of the anti-democracy tropes are the product of people being trained to think of democracy that way, trained to think that democracy MUST fail. And even if it works on this or that scale under these or those conditions, there's always an excuse for why it CAN'T work in a country like the US. That misguided (or rather intentionally indoctrinated) notion must be cast aside.

[@michelramon5786]

One thing that would be good is to require that new residential construction be required to generate all of its energy needs via solar in exchange for a property tax break. It's not expensive to have a roof generating 1-2KWP nowadays Also require that all commercial establishments with giant parking lots cover them with this as well, again with the same tax break It is something that is working perfectly in Brazil (without the tax break). We have already 4 million units in distributed generation (DG)/self-generation, and an annual addition of more than 10GW, representing 17.4% of the national production currently.

[@lostbutfreesoul]

Go the next step, Government Grants. One of the thing I am really angry over, mostly because I got burned, is how California authorized 'financial programs' to try and get Solar Panels on Houses. These turned out to be scams, and if you where burned by one please contact the DOJ for the State of California as they now have a Grant to help people, that failed to meet the goals for obvious reasons. Yet... if California wanted to meet those goals... they had billions in excess budget during that period! Use some of that to purchase systems that you then hand out to home owners! Now I want you to think about an alternative history where they did that. Home owners like myself didn't get chained down to insane loan via these scams, but got the systems even larger then their homes needed. All that excess power being generated during the day, and all of it being pumped into a system that is now dominated by the State as the largest Power Supplier. All those Ship Yards, Warehouses, and Tech Centers dotting up and down California. All being offered *heavily subsidized* electricity to keep their job centers within California. Instead of what we got: A half built system, lot of debt, and companies fleeing this State.

[@xredhead7135x]

I think the public/private divide can be bridged by reasonable regulations imposed by a regulatory board that has the teeth to both enforce past & current agreements and meaningfully punish if the company is found to have stepped out of line.

[@TheAmericanAmerican]

This, amongst many other things, is why I'm a socialist! Renewable energy, especially solar PV has the potential to make us ALL energy independent!

[@Jamhael1]

If you add thorium nuclear power, that is almost utopia!

[@kevindolan2755]

What if people in a community pool their money to create a 501c3 nonprofit energy corporation that employs and provides power to the members of that community? Being payed as expenses, the people of the community and specifically those that invested in the project could still be compensated and make a return on their investment with any actual profit reinvested to drive down energy costs. With a nonprofit, the entity wouldn’t have to pay taxes and could also pass those savings onto the community. It could be run by a combination of selected and general assemblies with corporate voting rights distributed equally to each individual (over the age of 18) in the community. This model would work within a capitalist framework without the need for non-violent or violent revolution (although I am personally deeply in favor of revolution). It could be a temporary solution at least until the government could be democratized properly without corruption. I just don’t like the idea of working through the government because it’s literally designed to keep things from getting done efficiently. Capitalism is efficient but heartless. With a socialist cooperative at its heart, a capitalistic entity could provide a healthy combination of efficiency, morality, sovereignty, and justice. Just a thought. The more potential solutions brainstormed the better I think 🙂

[@happygreenland37]

Iceland is renowned for its high energy production per capita, primarily due to its abundant renewable energy resources. 1. Geothermal Energy: Iceland harnesses geothermal energy from its volcanic activity. This accounts for about 25% of the country’s electricity production and nearly 90% of its heating needs. 2. Hydroelectric Power: The majority of Iceland’s electricity (around 70%) comes from hydroelectric power plants. The country’s numerous rivers and waterfalls provide a consistent and reliable source of hydroelectric energy. 3. Per Capita Production: Iceland produces approximately 55,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per person annually. This is one of the highest rates in the world, thanks to its small population and substantial renewable energy infrastructure. Iceland consistently ranks among the happiest countries in the world. Here are some details about its happiness ranking: 1. 2024 Ranking: Iceland is ranked as the third happiest country in the world in 2024, with a happiness score of 7.5251. 2. Social Support: Iceland boasts the highest feeling of social support among the top seven happiest countries1. 3. Generosity: It has the second-highest generosity score in the top seven, although it ranks 11th worldwide in this category1. 4. Overall Happiness: The high ranking is attributed to factors such as strong social support systems, high standards of living, and a strong sense of community.

[@jaysmakingprogress]

We are trying to do this in Rochester, NY. Unfortunately the utility, and much of the local government, is fighting back against our efforts. Local residents clearly want public power but we’ve been met with a massive disinformation campaign.

[@ayoutubechannelname]

NIMBYs put a big damper on where transmission lines can get built. Lack of transmission capacity means the majority of proposed large scale solar and wind plants are canceled or scaled down. Energetic drilling can allow us to get underground transmission lines sooner rather than later. If we don’t have less laborious ways to get transmission lines buried, it will take too long to fix the problem.

[@gregorymalchuk272]

Underground routing of high voltage electricity cables is massively expensive. It would be easier to have more power to build the lines without local input.

[@ayoutubechannelname]

@@gregorymalchuk272 That’s why I am excited about EarthGrid PBC. They’re developing a plasma torch system which will heat a stream of air that will blast through hard rock, mainly by chipping away through thermally fracturing the rock, in a process known as spallation. If they are right, tunneling will be faster, cheaper, without use of fracking chemicals.

[@vylbird8014]

The plasma torch technology is still in prototype stage, and has some practical issues to overcome. It's promising, but unproven. There is no assurance it can be made into a practical and scalable technology.

[@burritoxl6056]

Love your content, but is there any possibility to have your content on MeansTV aswell? Cause I don't like how Nebula treated 2nd thought and removed his content on their platform.

[@robumf]

There is a very old school technology that on a personal level that may be neglected. You get the most return at a much lower cost. Check your insulation. Especially the gaps around windows, doors and plumbing, Turn things off. when not in use. Share your space.. If you are a single person, consider a roommate.

[@darkranger116]

this is fantastic

[@crazymusicman13]

Tucson DSA is currently organizing around a public power campaign.

[@Zyo117]

As a Newfoundlander, I apologise for FORTIS, but they also gouge us for our social power infrastructure. They run Newfoundland Power, but most of the power generation is done by Newfoundland Labrador Hydro, which is a government crown Corp.

[@zoppp621]

Georgia's PUC has been captured by Georgia Power. Due to a redistricting lawsuit, our elections have been delayed by years. Ontop of that our republican controlled house and senate added two more years to the 6 year terms of our all Republican commissioners. Within the last 4 years, our average power bills have gone from $150 in the summer to over $500 in the summer. On top of that, all the PUC commisioners live in an area run by a local energy Co-op and arent subjected to the policies and rate hikes they have allowed. And on top of all that, they have allowed Georgia power to pass the cost of mismanaging the Vogtle nuclear project onto rate payers instead of penalizing Georgia power by making them accept lower profits.

[@YourCapyFrenBigly_3DPipes1999]

Public utilities should be seen for what they are, a public good and need, and therefore run ONLY on a non-profit basis. Elite investors should be forced to turn their appetites elsewhere. HUMAN NEEDS ARE *RIGHTS* AND SHOULDN'T BE HIJACKED BY PROFITEERS. PERIOD.

[@R_Alexander029]

As an Engineer, I prefer de-centralized models. ideally, my own house would generate 100% of the electricity my house uses.

[@tealkerberus748]

It's achievable. Part of the solution is radically reducing the amount of power your house uses, by the sort of strategies used in Passivhaus designs. Once you've got your energy consumption down to what you can produce off your own roof, you just need to put a whole lot of solar panels on that roof, and the problem is solved. If you build your house to last, the next achievable goal is to export more energy back into the grid over the house's lifespan than what it took to build the house in the first place. Then you've got a truly net-zero house.

[@chillonfunsmart4929]

The government needs to just stop suppressing alternative energy solutions like zero point energy. And we the people need to decentralize our energy infrastructure. The more we rely on government for things, the more the government will exploit us.

[@arenomusic]

I just watched the Nebula extra, could it not have been included on the end on this video? I guess my expectations were too high, I thought you would be discussing lead free halide perovskite photovoltaics or how to actually build a wind microgrid, something actionable.

[@Moosemoose1]

I've always been interested in city planning and infrastructure, and as a Marxist I constantly think about the many ways we can improve our needlessly fragmented, disjointed, outdated and poorly designed utility systems. Imagine what we could accomplish by pooling all resources together towards making efficient energy systems and rail networks from the many fragmented, inefficient private systems already in place that are separately managed, have poor inter-system communication and are limited in their efficiency by property ownership, patents and greed. Socialism would streamline everything in ALL industries - not only increasing efficiency, but driving down costs significantly because the focus wouldn't be on ever-increasing quarterly profit returns for private shareholders. Instead of 20+ different private rail companies with their own private lines, competing goals, and varying management styles completely unaccountable to anyone but their shareholders we could have a single national rail network that is unified and simplified, managed by representatives (who are rail workers themselves) voted on by fellow rail workers and held accountable to the public. Instead of 50 different power companies with different costs, fees, management, varying quality and no accountability, we would have a SINGLE national Power system subdivided into regional, state and municipal branches held to the same high standards across the board, again managed by those elected by workers in this system and held accountable to the general public. The same goes for the healthcare, educational and housing systems, as well as industrial production. I'm tired of having so many companies I have no idea who is doing what or who should be held accountable for what if something were to go wrong. Systems are getting far too atomized into specialized private fiefdoms that it's making it impossible to hold ANYONE accountable for serious crimes. This has to end, and the best way to do it is to just streamline everything and erase the unnecessary middle men.

[@fireorb2]

I will fully watch this when I get the chance. I need some hope for this messed up world.

[@CynthiaMcG]

Even in the state of Texas, my city has a localized utility that serves the residents here. They were kneecapped by ERCOT during the Big Freeze, but they became wiser to that BS. Deregulation is a song and dance that would put the protagonist of The Music Man to shame.

[@Freesorin837]

I think the vision laid out here for socialist energy generation could also work well for agriculture and food production. An investment in local community production combined with a centralized system to make up the difference. Highly efficient and equitable.

[@Lucas-zd9yn]

Amazing

[@definitelynotacrab7651]

Power to the people!

[@natesofamerica]

Not sure I'd qualify any of the solutions in the US plutocracy as being "in the hands of the people", though certainly there are relative degrees.

[@quartzforce]

CA tried to transfer to a wage-based model, but so far it's just increased the bills of people who 'make money' but lose it all paying various interests on past debts and discouraged a lot of people from cutting back on personal energy usage. It's not working and I wish they would realize that anything capitalistic in nature is not the answer.

[@zhcultivator]

please make a video about mutual insurance.

[@AlexDavidkova]

What scares the most people who are holding the power is exactly that - people who are tired from being exploited and want their rights together with the whole union. This is why communism and Russia "should" be hated, they might start giving ideas and they don't want that.

[@mikeohawk95]

0:07 we could just place solar panels on the lines to pump excess power formmthe sun and batteries in the towers to stire excess as we relay it along and inner turbines to collect the constant wind enengy and dishes to relay internet too!! An innovation idea

[@eromod]

Cooperation can be voluntary, it doesn't require coercion.

[@LloydJHart]

Socialists should adopt Nikola Tesla's broadcasted power where all you have to do is put a wire in the ground and your house is lit. The only reason the Tesla broadcast energy system (BES) wasn't adopted was because JP Morgan wanted to build was a energy monopoly and he had the backing of John D. Rockefeller and Thomas Edison. JP Morgan stoped supporting Tesla's BES system in Colorado Springs because under Tesla's BES, most would pay for electrical service but some wouldn't and that was why JP Morgan cornered the copper market to build the grid monopoly and meters and out door cut switches controlled by the Electrical utility. There is no mystery to what Tesla was doing in Colorado Springs and Tesla coil BES have been replcated. We can remove the entire grid and simply focus on BES big, medium and small generators.. This would collapse the cost of electricity.

[@vylbird8014]

It wasn't adopted because it isn't practical. Tesla tried, and he did get power transmission working - but the efficiency is a fraction of a fraction of a percent. He used an dedicated power station and a resonant transmitter the size of a building to get a few watts of power out of a light bulb. Plus the sheer power of energy you'd have to pump out would be dangerous.

[@LloydJHart]

@@vylbird8014 What are you talking about? If Tesla was pursuing it, he had a plan to to make it work. You must work for a privatized utility. We are going to break the electricity monopoly and nationalize all public utilities and it will be done With Tesla coil generators. Spreading cables all across the land was inefficient and creating a 30% higher cancer rate amongst mega watt line workers was inefficient. You can't win arguments with falsehoods, you need facts.

[@randomguy1283]

The bit about Puerto Rico puts a nail in the coffin to the idea that renewables and climate activism is just something for rich coastal elites