Reply To: Regulation of electric power production

[Phil’s Dad]

Brian H – I struggle to follow my own advice on this – which is to avoid thinking in a way more relevant to the past. You are right that many of the things we don’t do because of energy cost become possible. They will have a spin off effect by making other things possible that haven’t even been thought of yet. But… if we have a sudden increase in the amount of nickle/iron ore available it would drop in value enormously and you would need to revise your figure accordingly.

This is exactly why energy cost will drop dramatically when small scale fusion becomes universally available. But only if it is universally available. If we stick to the old fashioned transmitted network, even powered by FF, with big centralised clusters of generators, controlled by a few, then profits will rise rather than consumer costs falling. (Aeronaut’s “Greed is good” scenario – more on that in a tick).

That said I am not to concerned about the centralised picture prevailing in the long run. It exists at present only because it is cheaper to buy from the (expensive to maintain) grid than to construct your own source. Those economics are stood on their head by FF.

But I still maintain that a localised outcome is inevitable not for economic reasons but for simple security of supply. That leads me to a different view of greed. The desire for more of a thing than you need. Perhaps the desire to have it all. It becomes meaningless when everyone has as much as they want, under their own control, sustainably, for the long term. Over to Mr Lerner!