The Grid:The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future
Book Summary
In our modern world where most of us take electricity for granted, the constant availability of power that drives our lives is rarely noticed except when the supply breaks down. That constant flow of electricity determines where we live, what we eat, what we read and watch, and what we purchase. All that provided by the electric grid.
In an interview with Readara, cultural anthropologist and author Gretchen Bakke offers an exhaustive view of how the electric grid was created, built and expanded in the past century. After several decades of dueling standards from competing companies, the grid as we know it today, has been a steady source of power driven by stable electricity generation.
Today, with the emergence of renewable energy sources the consumer of power is increasingly becoming an electricity generator. On the downside, the new sources of power are highly variable and dynamic, causing additional chaos to an already outdated electric grid.