Book Review
The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future, by Gretchen Bakke, Bloomsbury, 2016.
Few people give the electrical grid a passing thought until it fails to deliver the juice, through blackouts and brownouts. The Grid explains how this huge and complex machine evolved from a myriad of local microgrids at the start of the 20th Century, how most of them were merged into one of three centralized grids (Western, Eastern, and Texas) by mid-century, and how 60 years of upheavals in the energy industry, deferred maintenance, and proliferation of small, intermittent producers feeding the grid (wind and solar) have frayed its stability. Author Gretchen Bakke's historical narrative explains how the American economy has become so dependent on the grid, how and why the grid is deteriorating, and how this alarming trend can be reversed. Everyone who complains about the overhead charges on their electric bill needs to read this book.
Bakke researched this book extensively and organized the subject matter well. But what a range of intelligence from genius to stupidity she exhibits in the text!
The zenith of intelligence
She raises many profound but rarely recognized truths to the reader's attention. An example from page 259, regarding maintaining the grid during its transition from just barely stable to robust: "...anything we add to the grid must have the capacity to interface effectively with everything that was there before, while everything we subtract from it must not disrupt the flow of power that we are so reliant upon."
The nadir of stupidity
On pages 262-263 she writes glowingly about renewables because the only expenses, "once they have been built and put into operation," are the fuels, which cost nothing: sunshine and wind are free! Even large corporations like renewables because "It's simply easier to make a profit if one can reduce to nothing the cost of a necessary ingredient." She says nothing about the costs of getting renewables "built and put into operation", and nothing about the replacement costs 20 to 30 years down the line when solar panels and wind turbines would have to be replaced. These are the necessary ingredients she glosses over, the very ingredients that always have and always shall impede widespread adoption of renewables.
Stupider than stupid
The Notes section in the back is designed with ebooks in mind, having entries referenced by text phrase rather than page number. What's a reader of a printed copy to do, scan the whole chapter to find the text corresponding to that note? Notes have citations like "Lacey (2014)", but there's no bibliography anywhere to look them up. Again, what's a reader of a printed copy to do, scan the entire book for the first occurrence of author "Lacey"? This is obviously an ebook whose text was printed as is, with no thought given to the difference in text-scanning speeds between people and machines.
On the whole the intelligence in the Author's content outweighs the stupidity, so I'll give her 4 stars. Had she recognized any role for nuclear power in the grid of the future, I'd have given her 5 stars. But I give the publisher of the printed edition only 2 stars for failing to insist that the author reference notes by page numbers, and include a bibliography. The average of 4 for Bakke and 2 for Bloomsbury earns The Grid 3 stars.
The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future, by Gretchen Bakke, Bloomsbury, 2016.
Few people give the electrical grid a passing thought until it fails to deliver the juice, through blackouts and brownouts. The Grid explains how this huge and complex machine evolved from a myriad of local microgrids at the start of the 20th Century, how most of them were merged into one of three centralized grids (Western, Eastern, and Texas) by mid-century, and how 60 years of upheavals in the energy industry, deferred maintenance, and proliferation of small, intermittent producers feeding the grid (wind and solar) have frayed its stability. Author Gretchen Bakke's historical narrative explains how the American economy has become so dependent on the grid, how and why the grid is deteriorating, and how this alarming trend can be reversed. Everyone who complains about the overhead charges on their electric bill needs to read this book.
Bakke researched this book extensively and organized the subject matter well. But what a range of intelligence from genius to stupidity she exhibits in the text!
The zenith of intelligence
She raises many profound but rarely recognized truths to the reader's attention. An example from page 259, regarding maintaining the grid during its transition from just barely stable to robust: "...anything we add to the grid must have the capacity to interface effectively with everything that was there before, while everything we subtract from it must not disrupt the flow of power that we are so reliant upon."
The nadir of stupidity
On pages 262-263 she writes glowingly about renewables because the only expenses, "once they have been built and put into operation," are the fuels, which cost nothing: sunshine and wind are free! Even large corporations like renewables because "It's simply easier to make a profit if one can reduce to nothing the cost of a necessary ingredient." She says nothing about the costs of getting renewables "built and put into operation", and nothing about the replacement costs 20 to 30 years down the line when solar panels and wind turbines would have to be replaced. These are the necessary ingredients she glosses over, the very ingredients that always have and always shall impede widespread adoption of renewables.
Stupider than stupid
The Notes section in the back is designed with ebooks in mind, having entries referenced by text phrase rather than page number. What's a reader of a printed copy to do, scan the whole chapter to find the text corresponding to that note? Notes have citations like "Lacey (2014)", but there's no bibliography anywhere to look them up. Again, what's a reader of a printed copy to do, scan the entire book for the first occurrence of author "Lacey"? This is obviously an ebook whose text was printed as is, with no thought given to the difference in text-scanning speeds between people and machines.
On the whole the intelligence in the Author's content outweighs the stupidity, so I'll give her 4 stars. Had she recognized any role for nuclear power in the grid of the future, I'd have given her 5 stars. But I give the publisher of the printed edition only 2 stars for failing to insist that the author reference notes by page numbers, and include a bibliography. The average of 4 for Bakke and 2 for Bloomsbury earns The Grid 3 stars.
posted by Michael Pelizzari at 11:43 PM
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