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Two problems with electric everything: 1. At least for now, the power still goes out. Maybe I'm still smarting from a week-long power outage this past winter

Two problems with electric everything: 1. At least for now, the power still goes out. Maybe I'm still smarting from a week-long power outage this past winter, but in the US, our electric grid is fragile in many places, and we are probably decades away from it being more resilient, so more dependence on electricity is more reliance on large utility providers. Dirty fossil fuels are still better at being able to be moved around in bulk - gasoline has 50-100x the power density of batteries. Electricity has more potential for being decentralized, but we are far away from that. 2. Electricity tends to mean miniaturization and computerization. That tends to mean more difficult to repair; someone related to me a story about a small village somewhere in Africa that was reliant on a gas-powered pump for the well. They had to get gas for it of course, but if it broke down it was simple enough that nearly any person in the village knew how to repair it. A solar-powered pump would eliminate the need for gas, but no one had the tools or knowledge to repair it if it broke. Additionally, with manufacturers desiring ever more control through embedded DRM, it leads to a future where even if the electric power is available, we might not be able to use it because we didn't pay the licensing fees. These are perhaps very dystopian concerns, but recent world events somehow make these sorts of concerns more realistic.

jillesvangurp 5y ago
The US grid is indeed a bit of a mess. Not exactly world leading but still better than some third world countries. IMHO that situation will actually accelerate changes in the US. Because it is so bad, people are taking control of the situation and there are lots of solutions to reduce your dependency on the fragile grid that are getting popular. Burning gas/oil is the stupidly expensive solution (especially recently). Saving on that cost is what any entrepreneur worthy of the name would gladly spend on. And the US is famously very entrepreneurial. Solar, wind, and batteries are not that complicated. If you are handy, you can buy some cheap stuff on ebay and wire it together yourself or you can pay some people in your area to do it for you. Different set of skills than maintaining an ICE engine but not fundamentally a lot harder than that. There are plenty of people handy with that sort of stuff that are busy electrifying everything they can get their hands on. There's no basis for your paranoia here.
theshrike79 5y ago
US Grid issues are 100% political, not technical. If you want to put in a oil/gas pipeline, you need one permission from the state, then you're a go. BUT. If you want to install new power lines it's a whole different ball game. First you need state level permission, then you need one from the cities you're passing through, then the counties, then the individual property owners and everyone who can see the high-voltage lines. The amount of NIMBYing in the permit process is staggering.

jillesvangurp 5y ago

The US grid is indeed a bit of a mess. Not exactly world leading but still better than some third world countries. IMHO that situation will actually accelerate changes in the US. Because it is so bad, people are taking control of the situation and there are lots of solutions to reduce your dependency on the fragile grid that are getting popular. Burning gas/oil is the stupidly expensive solution (especially recently). Saving on that cost is what any entrepreneur worthy of the name would gladly spend on. And the US is famously very entrepreneurial. Solar, wind, and batteries are not that complicated. If you are handy, you can buy some cheap stuff on ebay and wire it together yourself or you can pay some people in your area to do it for you. Different set of skills than maintaining an ICE engine but not fundamentally a lot harder than that. There are plenty of people handy with that sort of stuff that are busy electrifying everything they can get their hands on. There's no basis for your paranoia here.

theshrike79 5y ago

US Grid issues are 100% political, not technical. If you want to put in a oil/gas pipeline, you need one permission from the state, then you're a go. BUT. If you want to install new power lines it's a whole different ball game. First you need state level permission, then you need one from the cities you're passing through, then the counties, then the individual property owners and everyone who can see the high-voltage lines. The amount of NIMBYing in the permit process is staggering.