What will our energy future look like?
No. I'm not asking you what will be the mix of resources. Or industry structure. Or dominant technologies. I'm not asking what will be the fate of regulation.
None of that. I'm simply asking what the future of energy will look like. What we'll see. Literally.
When we careen roads with driverless cars. When we tour the vast distances with drone eyes. When we walk through homes, work places and public spaces with augmented reality. What we'll see.
What we'll see when we look at the generation, distribution and utilization of energy.
We've hidden generation and distribution from the public's view, for the most part. But if they really look, they can plainly see power plants, transmission lines, substations and certainly distribution lining our streets. In some regions, they can plainly see mining and extraction.
In the future, say, in the year 2040, what will the public see? Humongous wind, solar and battery farms covering counties nearly? Gigantic expansions of the grid to integrate and compensate for less-controllable generation? More energy infrastructure — much more — in neighborhoods?
Twenty-three years from now, what will our energy future look like? Tell us what you see that we'll see.
Send your vision. Even a paragraph or two will do.
Send it to mitnick@fortnightly.com. We'll publish the most interesting of your submissions.
The visionary magazine for commentary, opinion and debate on utility regulation and policy since 1928, Public Utilities Fortnightly. "In PUF, Impact the Debate."
Steve Mitnick, Editor-in-Chief, Public Utilities Fortnightly
E-mail me: mitnick@fortnightly.com