The day of the huge thermal generator, feeding monstrous transformation and transmission systems, is past. Even hydro generation, once thought to be benign, is showing its shortcomings as head ponds silt up, wildlife is disrupted, water is mispriced and misallocated, whole populations are displaced, and it all becomes a political football. Physics, geography, climate, and simple arithmetic show clearly that solar, wind, and other renewables will forever be a small component of total energy supply, considering the true, unsubsidized cost of such things as energy storage media. And no, the wind does not blow more strongly at night; it blows when its energy source, the sun, is up.
Scattered news reports demonstrate that the logic of distributed power based on small community generators is finally dawning on us. We can no longer afford the vulnerability, to technical and now terrorist and cyber problems, of big concentrations of generation, linked by complex, untested (because the first test, which complex computer systems always fail, is always a major blackout) computer integration systems. Nor of giga-bucks of transformation and giga-acres of right of way for giga-buck 765 kV power lines that can cost more giga-bucks to replace when ice brings them down. Nor for expensive, glossy, and yet-to-be-proven economics of DC power and its converters. Nor of integration-gone-mad, in which a tree falling on a line somewhere in Flatbush can black out the entire east coasts of two countries.
The answer? Small generation installations near cities, with short, hopefully soon super-conducting, feeders to small substations camouflaged as houses, well kept and fitting their neighborhoods; all at modest voltages such as the commonly used 13.8 kV, straight from the generators without expensive transformation. We already quite successfully do some of this.
The generators? Nuclear-powered, of course. The problems with nuclear plants and their waste products are political, not technical. Further, we need to think small, not big; we can develop small nuclear plants to power submarines to kill people, so surely we can develop small nuclear plants to serve people. A huge development expense, you say? Billions, you say? Yes, indeed. But we seem to be able to afford hundreds of billions every year for arms, why not for something truly productive with a life in decades, not years? We could retire a few hundred ICBMs, which would more than pay for the comnuke (community nuclear) generators.
Let’s think out of the box.
No, let’s smash the box.
Frank Gue
