A one-hour-a-day course on energy abundance
Reading and listening for lowering energy prices
Imagine someone said they’d read or watch things for an hour each day to learn about energy abundance. What would you assign them?
Here is draft one of my answer to that question–with my narrative layered over it of what matters most. It is meant to be consumed in just a few hours over five days. The list is incomplete, but a gentle and wide-ranging survey.
I chose five categories:
Why energy? Prosperity is energy-intensive
Unlocking technological change in energy
New energy technologies
Celebrate environmental victories
Public utility reform
Tell me what I missed or what I should have highlighted.
Why energy? Prosperity is energy-intensive.
Energy is an input to everything. Human history, divided into the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age, represents changes in our abilities to harness energy. Humans went from shaping what we could pick up off the ground to a world of mining special ores and fuel from miles underground to make new materials today. Steel exists because of humanity’s ingenuity in harnessing energy and employing it to form unnatural materials. Energy is the master resource for this reason. With it, we bend a hostile world into a garden of plenty.
Looking across the world reveals that prosperity is energy-intensive. Ecologist Howard T. Odum said, "people of the developed world no longer eat potatoes made from solar energy... People are really eating potatoes made partly of oil.”
Energy is both a cause and a consequence of wealth. Material scientist Siva Sivaramon points out that seeing both sides of this is essential:
People always talk about high GDP countries consuming a high per capita amount of power. I believe the cause and effect are reversed. High per capita consumption of power leads to high GDP. Just like food and water, energy is a fundamental necessity. After food, water, and shelter, make plenty of power available, and the country will prosper in ways you never even thought of. Don't build power to meet a need; make power available, then the needs will come.
Unlocking technological change in energy
The electrical grid is in the age of dial-up–maybe even the telegraph! It’s a network that has only started realizing the benefits of being a network. Governance of the electrical grid assumed a one-way flow from generators to consumers for years. The one-way flow has evolved into a multidirectional system with many participants. Orchestrating these distributed resources of generation, storage, and load from residential and industrial consumers is a new ability.
Yet, innovation is slow because of the rules and institutions around the electrical grid. This reflects the long history of regulatory reform from people like Alfred Khan. Building a market-oriented electricity grid that lets a thousand flowers bloom is no simple task.
New energy technologies
Several new energy resources and technologies have gained traction since fracking enabled natural gas’s displacement of coal.
Nuclear has been around for decades, but remains a small portion of our electricity system. Advances in nuclear could mean a potential renaissance. However, we need to do more than is contained within the recently signed ADVANCE Act.
Geothermal energy is similar, though less well-known. A generation source once limited by special geographies is now possible in more and more locations and in more forms.
Virtual power plants orchestrate distributed energy resources. Unlike nuclear and geothermal, VPPs include load as well. That is, rather than generation or even storage assets, these sometimes shift when electricity is used to different times of day to arbitrage power prices. This can mean using more electricity to benefit the entire system.
Celebrate environmental victories
Climate change is a serious challenge. It’s far from the first that we’ve faced, and it will not be the last.
Several environmental victories should feature in our consideration of adding climate change to the heap of solved problems:
How we fixed the ozone layer, Hannah Ritchie
I used to feel like humanity was doomed, Hannah Ritchie
Getting the Lead Out (chapter 10 of A Short History of Nearly Everything), Bill Bryson
Public utility reform
You likely have one choice for where you buy electricity, but many more from where you get cell phone service. Why? How we choose to run public utilities. In most places, electricity is provided by a single monopoly. In Texas, however, there is a thriving retail electricity market. Texans have more than 100 options in some places. States looking to offer choices to their consumers and support energy innovation should consider a competitive retail market. There are also ways to make incremental reforms.
Just the material below
Why energy? Prosperity is energy-intensive.
Are we Running out of Resources?, Brett Hall
On Richard Smalley's Terawatt Challenge, Jesse Peltan
Prosperity is Energy-intensive, Josh T. Smith
Does Higher Energy Consumption Cause Greater Economic Output?, The Atlantic
Diving deeper
Energy Superabundance: How Cheap, Abundant Energy Will Shape Our Future, Eli Dourado and Austin Vernon
The Case for More Energy, Matthew Yglesias
Future Global Energy Prosperity: The Terawatt Challenge, Richard E. Smalley
Unlocking innovation and technological change in energy
Decentralizing the Grid, Lynne Kiesling
Market Design in Regulated Industries, Lynne Kiesling
First Measured Century: Interview, Alfred Khan
Diving deeper
In Defense of Electricity Markets, Austin Vernon
Innovations and Decentralized Energy Markets, Lynne Kiesling
How Texas builds and grows, Josh T. Smith
Celebrate environmental victories
How we fixed the ozone layer, Hannah Ritchie
I Used to Feel like Humanity was Doomed, Hannah Ritchie
Getting the Lead Out (chapter 10 of A Short History of Nearly Everything), Bill Bryson
Diving deeper
Not the End of the World, Hannah Ritchie
New energy technologies
Harnessing the Heat Beneath Our Feet, Eli Dourado
Unburdening Energy Prosperity, Grant Dever
Diving deeper
Public utility reform
The Need for Electricity Retail Market Reforms, Michael Giberson and Lynne Kiesling
Why There's No Such Thing As a Free Market for Electricity, Travis Kavulla
Diving deeper
Electricity Restructuring: The Texas Story, Lynne Kiesling and Andrew Kleit
Retail Electric Competition and Natural Monopoly, Jerry Ellig
Electricity Capacity Markets, Todd S. Aagaard, Andrew Kleit
Exploring ERCOT, Brandt Vermillion and Modo Energy
Exploring ERCOT Pt. 2, Brandt Vermillion and Modo Energy
Energy policy in ERCOT, Caitlin Smith
There is No Free Market for Electricity: Can There Ever Be?, Travis Kavulla