That’s the conclusion of an extensively reported investigation jointly conducted by The Atlantic magazine and InvestigateWest, a watchdog nonprofit that was founded in 2009 after the one of Seattle’s daily newspapers stopped publishing. The problem is not the technology, and not even the cost. has been almost as great, and by 2018 the planning of one was pretty far long-until it hit a roadblock that, two years later, still stymies any progress. The need for a continent-wide supergrid in the U.S. In the early 20teens, Europe began merging its distinct grids into a continent-wide supergrid, an algorithm-based project that IEEE Spectrumwrote about in 2014. This year, California once again saw rolling blackouts, and with our contemporary climate producing heat waves that can stretch from the Pacific Coast to the Rocky Mountains, they won’t be the last.Įlectricity is hard to store and hard to move, and electrical grids are complex, creaky, and expensive to change. Even in a modern city like Mumbai, generators are commonplace, because of an uncertain electrical grid. By one estimate, a billion people still do without it. It’s the key to modern life as we know it, and yet, universal, reliable service remains an unsolved problem. The vaccines we’re all waiting for depend on electricity in a hundred different ways. Antibiotics and the modern hospital would be impossible without refrigeration. Once you get past some key enablers that can’t really be called inventions-fire, money, the wheel, calendars, the alphabet-you find things like light bulbs, the automobile, refrigeration, radios, the telegraph and telephone, airplanes, computers and the Internet. If you look at lists of the 100 greatest inventions of all time, electricity figures prominently. Steven Cherry Hi, this is Steven Cherry for Radio Spectrum. Join the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences and get access to this e-book plus all of IEEE Spectrum’s articles, archives, PDF downloads, and other benefits. Join the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences and get access toĪll of Spectrum’s articles, archives, PDF downloads, and other benefits. For more exclusive content and features, consider , including the ability to save articles to read later, download Spectrum Collections, and participate inĬonversations with readers and editors. 's Digital Edition is exclusive for IEEE Membersįollowing topics is a feature exclusive for IEEE MembersĪdding your response to an article requires an IEEE Spectrum accountĬreate an account to access more content and features on The Institute content is only available for membersĭownloading full PDF issues is exclusive for IEEE Membersĭownloading this e-book is exclusive for IEEE Members
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