The future of energy
Once upon a time, the only computers that existed were mainframes that served armies of users on dumb terminals, mechanical teletype and punchcard machines. These were the days before mice and windows, when the giant airconditioned hosts were used for serious military, scientific and commercial applications and were kept running by a very serious priesthood of IT professionals and engineers. And, in addition to fuelling some very real macho fantasies of centalised power and control, mainframe computers cost plenty to buy and run.
Then, the paradigm changed forever in the early 1980s with the arrival of the IBM PC and the Apple. Suddenly hosts that billed CPU time in seconds and cost a fortune were consigned to the scrapheap along with their makers. And with new software applications, we could start to write our own programs to suit our needs.
A similar paradigm shift is happening in the field of energy. A disruptive technology is on its way that will perturbate big energy corporations in much the same way that it did mainframe manufacturers. The energy crisis has stimulated a wave of innovation that makes a mockery of long term planning of power stations and the use of dirty fossil fuels. Solar panel manufacturers are looking to develop panels for under US$1 per watt http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/plans-for-super-thin-solar-panel-production-facility-in-sa-move-ahead-2009-10-12 . There is talk of innovations in wave energy, hydrogen, geothermal energy, wind energy and even free energy. And many of these innovations are on the same scale as the PC – small, environmentally friendly, cheap and very useful. Like the age of the Personal Computer, the age of Personal Power is dawning and the writing is on the wall for big energy.
Steve Banhegyi
steve@storytelling.co.za
