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Frontlines & Op-Ed

Response to Two Articles Re: Grid Resilience

A general response to the articles by Michael Deggendorf and by Paul Afonso, Lauren Azar, Dian Grueneich, James Hoecker in our August 2016 issue

Two articles in the August 2016 issue made the irrefutable case that we need to shore up grid resilience. I can’t argue with those measures. But I’m not sure that they are getting to the root of the problem. Perhaps we need to spend more time asking whether small decentralized systems can accomplish the same end as the large systems.
Byline: 

Leonard Hyman

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Legacy and Generations

We’ll Soon Hand You the Baton

The pasts and futures of automobiles and electricity are remarkably similar. They first inspired a generation. That generation’s grandchildren associate these venerable industries with environmental despoilment and technological obsolescence.
Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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Future Shocked

New uses for electricity doubtless on the horizon albeit unpredictable

One vision of future power: By 2040, most households had at least one Powered Immersion room, some two or three.
Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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Consumers Want What?

Rather than accept the rhetoric, let’s find out.

What’s missing is asking consumers to consider realistic tradeoffs between two characteristics of electricity rather than the desirability of a single characteristic in isolation.
Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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Response to Brown Re: Net Metering

A response to the letter to the editor by Ashley Brown in our February 2016 issue.

Is rooftop solar more like an independent power producer, subject to societal regulation and policy, such as wholesale-level regulation or retail-level resource planning? Or is the electricity that is produced a private consumer good, immune from regulation, policy, and planning?
Byline: 

Charles Cicchetti

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