Microgrids in Brooklyn

A colleague in Germany sent me this article in yesterday’s New York Times called, “Solar Experiment Lets Neighbors Trade Energy Among Themselves” and noted that she thought I’d find it interesting.

Yes, this is VERY interesting.  In particular, it’s a reminder of how the future will provide us with solutions to the problems of living in thousands of ways no one has yet ever dreamed of. 

A lot of this is rooted in the concept of paradigms,.i.e., constructs that govern the way we use our minds to think and explore.  Paradigms work like blinders, inhibiting our ability to look in new directions.  Fortunately, they act as searchlights as well, focusing our minds onto areas that seem to bear fruit.

In the case of energy,  we’re trying to unstick our minds from the paradigm that has existed since the dawn of electrification about 100 years ago: a one-way flow of power from the utility to the consumer.  We’re just now seeing the incredible wealth of choices available to us, once we clear our heads of that outmoded idea.

This particular concept deals with microgrids, but here, they exist in concert with the grid as a whole. While this is cool, I would argue that an even more societally important use of microgrids is bringing electricity to parts of the developing world that have never experienced it before—critically important if we want to drive education, productivity, affluence and better family planning.  Something else to like about microgrids in the third world is that it affords the opportunity to leapfrog over fossil fuel plants, and go directly to renewables.