The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future

Description

One of Bill Gates’s Favorite Books of 2016 A revelatory look at our national
power grid–how it developed, its current flaws, and how it must be completely
reimagined for our fast-approaching energy future. America’s electrical grid,
an engineering triumph of the twentieth century, is turning out to be a poor
fit for the present. It’s not just that the grid has grown old and is now in
dire need of basic repair. Today, as we invest great hope in new energy
sources–solar, wind, and other alternatives–the grid is what stands most
firmly in the way of a brighter energy future. If we hope to realize this
future, we need to re-imagine the grid according to twenty-first-century
values. It’s a project which forces visionaries to work with bureaucrats,
legislators with storm-flattened communities, moneymen with hippies, and the
left with the right. And though it might not yet be obvious, this revolution
is already well under way. Cultural anthropologist Gretchen Bakke unveils the
many facets of America’s energy infrastructure, its most dynamic moments and
its most stable ones, and its essential role in personal and national life.
The grid, she argues, is an essentially American artifact, one which developed
with us: a product of bold expansion, the occasional foolhardy vision, some
genius technologies, and constant improvisation. Most of all, her focus is on
how Americans are changing the grid right now, sometimes with gumption and big
dreams and sometimes with legislation or the brandishing of guns. The Grid
tells–entertainingly, perceptively–the story of what has been called “the
largest machine in the world”: its fascinating history, its problematic
present, and its potential role in a brighter, cleaner future. Read more

Features:

Product Details:

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury USA; Illustrated edition (July 26, 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1608196100
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 04
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.53 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.53 x 1.19 x 9.41 inches
• Best Sellers Rank: #321,379 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #38 in Electric Energy #41 in Business Infrastructure #57 in Physics of Electricity
• #38 in Electric Energy
• #41 in Business Infrastructure