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  • Author Author: rscasny
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Has the time come for the decentralized power grid?

In some circles, the centralized power grid most nations have is on par with the dinosaur: big, clumsy and a thing of the past.

 

Whether it be the excessive costs of building and maintaining a centralized power grid, the occurrence of too many power blackouts from centralized power, or the risk of hackers and other bad actors impacting its power reliability, the need for a decentralized power grid on a national scale is critical to human civilization.

 

A decentralized power grid can include solar, geothermal, wind, or any number of innovative renewable technologies. They can include microgrids or even what I like to call the home grid. Power is generated locally and more cost effectively.

 

Here's the question: Has the time come for the decentralized power grid?

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  • in reply to clem57

    True, and in some cases power is more easily generated in one community than another, so moving power around works well.

     

    I would like to see it more decentralized in the form of having each community, town, or city be more self-sufficient with their power, not necessarily each home having independent power, so that any failure is somewhat localized and doesn't bring down entire provinces or states.

     

    For example, I live on Vancouver Island (about the size of Belgium, and bigger than several US states), and we have had island-wide outages due to supply lines failing (snow last time, I think). It doesn't happen often or last long, but I think it would make sense to break up such dependencies.

     

    -Nico