Who has the real controlling power?
Is the talk of more and more of a smart grid making people more and more stupid? In spite of the many merits brought by a smart grid, one big problem exists not only for theses smart grids, but for what it stands for— all advanced technologies, that is, expect for the minority of professionals most people can only response to those high techs but have weak power to control them. Will this lead to a disaster?
Everything in existence is reasonable. Why don’t people buy the renewable energy? When a sales man, Jeff spends one hour on introducing their advanced smart-grid combined solar energy system to Martin, no matter how much Jeff knows about the new tech, there is one simple question to which he cannot give a good response; if Martin says, “Why should I care about that? My current electricity can satisfy all that I need.” Thus the sale is over. Who should get blame? Jeff’s passion for renewable energy or the fair reason brought by Martin, it seems that both are reasonable.
There has got to be something accounting for the slow response of the market to those advanced technologies. Let’s ask another question: Who is smart? Is it the one who refuses advanced technologies and lives a simple life or is it one who spends high amounts of money on the newest products day by day but never opens a manual? I would say the latter would be fashioned but the former is smart, since a smart person can understand everything well in his life and has power to control them.
However, people are always trying to build a better life by their own hands. For example, after the emergence of solar energy and two-way meters, some try to build their own energy systems instead of only buying electricity from the national grid. Nonetheless, in a capitalistic world, such individual behaviors are not encouraged. It is an obvious fact when government keeps appropriating funds on smart-grid projects but is sluggish to give tax credits for an individual project.
So who is it that has the real controlling power, people, technologies or government? You call it.
It is all about money. Renewable energy won’t be a part of our economy until it is economical. The government can set regulations and provide financing programs to do this. The public is blind because of the lack of education [again due to the government and the lack of coverage in the media] about biomass as a renewable source. Biomass is much more efficient than solar. Biomass can be used anytime to generate electricity while solar is limited. Biomass can produce many more jobs compared to solar. Biomass will reduce landfills, solar won’t. The public is kept in the dark and cover over with B.S.