The Energy Future

The core problem at the heart of the rising cost of goods and services, national geopolitics and just about every other thing you can think of, is related to energy.

Energy is defined by science as the capacity to do work. In that sense, sunlight, hydrocarbons and money are all forms of energy. How energy is produced, transferred, stored and priced is a significant limitation. Under the current energy model, all energy is scarce and therefore expensive.

The good news is that science has been working on the problem and many solutions are starting to emerge:

• Spintronics will lead to longer lasting, more powerful batteries
• Solar equivalent of Moore's Law will keep driving down the cost of solar panels while making them more efficient
• Backyard nuclear, will scare every tree hugger but will also generate massive amounts of power in a small footprint 
• Fuel cells are finally being made available as a source of industrial power production

All these solutions point in the same direction -- the birth of distributed power generation. Instead of one massive facility generating power for the whole town, the whole town generates and shares power with each other. When everyone can produce energy, the power utilities will shift their focus from generation to power transfer and storage.

When energy becomes abundant (instead of scarce) there will be an enormous change -- far more extreme than the changes we've seen in the past 20 years. Cheap and abundant energy will transform every aspect of our society and how we conduct business.

The Energy Age is coming soon, maybe even sooner than we think. How will this seismic shift effect you industry? How will abundant energy change your business?

Call me and we'll figure it out together. 305-423-9574

R-Squared Computing | Lou RG | Nearly Free IT | Firm Wisdom

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