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"The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future" by Gretchen Bakke, Ph.D.
An excellent, introductory account about the grid, its history, the businees behind it; along with where it stands today, and ideas for improvement into the future.
Internet consumption with streaming videos/audio, posting pictures, typed articles, all backed by data centers, big and small, isn't built without reason. As Life transitioned online, compensation for power, let alone, backing both these systems and data up are done on the daily; yet here we are taking it for granted every day. It's high time we give this some thought: to step back and realize our electrical "trampoline" is losing elasticity every second. However, not many know where to start, despite using a search engine in finding out. Fellow bookworms, you're looking at it right now: a fantastic, introductory welcome in the world of electricity, The Grid by Gretchen Bakke!
Not one 'iota' of knowledge was present prior to reading this. Author Bakke presents the subject in a gentle way—for an open audience. Starting with the seminar she attended, dedicated to all electricians, engineers, etc., Bakke gives readers a tour in electricity's role in our everyday lives, what it does, its purpose, and putting the topic more into everyday conversation. Here in the US, we've gotten too comfortable, knowing when electricity goes out, we wait until it's fixed and comes back; not even worrying about any ramifications, whatsoever. However, as Bakke has shared, electricity doesn't always get fixed immediately, especially compared with other countries like South Korea: able to fix blackouts in minutes. Regardless, it's the element that allows Life to be lived: a basic human right. Nothing political here, given that short-sighted individuals, with a low sense of comprehension, would assume to be the case; it's introductory, and Bakke runs through short stories, numbers, and the science behind electricity that many will understand.
Author Bakke also went ahead discussing electricity's history, its availability, alongside the business of it. Readers will also learn about both direct currents (DC) and alternating currents (AC). An area within the topic is Samuel Insull: a staunch businessman of electricity. Fair to say it was Inusll, himself, who built, and presented, our grid. Author Bakke then talks about quirks and challenges in maintaining our grid; this includes alternatives, like wind and solar, which are still being used today. While Bakke didn't make some kind of argument for nor against it, there are reasons why using alternative energies still revert back to our grid. Following that, readers get caught up with smart energy technologies: tracking, "smartly" predicting, and providing enough electricity relative to customers' usage. This was an early rollout of smart technology, that, back then, many customers tried pushing back against, due to privacy concerns. (Would this mean that, eventually, people will accept AI?) In the last chapter of this book, author Bakke took time suggesting ways for upgrading, maintaining, and managing our grid, ensuring longevity without struggles and day-long, or week-long, blackouts. Mind you, it's not an easy task; and planning for it will take a long time, before deploying such fixes/upgrades.
Regulation of electricity during the Carter Administration happened to be our favorite part. Reason being? Neon lights took place: something that defined the eighties. For those who love the eighties era, author Bakke's presentation about this ought to tell you why that decade of frizzy hair, synthesizers, and shopping malls were brim with neon lights. We can't stop thinking about it!
For those wanting to know more about our grid, or acquiring basic knowledge about electricity, this title is a perfect introductory book. The writing and presentation is gentle, almost like reading Bakke's documents and blog; obvious difference being that you'll actually learn something. We feel that electricity isn't being discussed enough, nor has there been much advancement with respect to smart technologies taking place; let alone the policies being incorporated, nor why our electrical bills are so high. Other than that, it's a great book leading you to think about the element that modernized our way of living.
Highly recommended!
(This book was one of the inspirations behind self-publication of my essay Pikachu's Tears, published by KC Universal Publishing.)
- One of the most gentle, introductory books entering electricity and our grid.
- Author Bakke's writing is conversational, mixed with documentary-like style.
- Readers will learn the grid, importance of electricity, its history, the business behind it, and all its advancements leading up to modern day.
- One of the main causes of blackouts, besides possible outside forces? Overgrown trees and squirrels.
- None.
PROFILE |
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|---|---|
| Title | The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future |
| Author(s) | Gretchen Bakke, Ph.D. |
| Description | [FRONT FLAP] America's electrical grid, an engineering triumph of the twentieth century, is turning out to be a poor fit for the present. It's not just that the grid has grown old and is now in dire need of basic repair. Today, as we invest great hope in new energy sources—solar, wind, and other alternatives—the grid is what stands most firmly in the way of a brighter energy future. If we hope to realize this future, we need to reimagine the grid according to twenty-first century values. It's a project that forces visionaries to work with bureaucrats, legislators with storm-flattened communities, moneymen with hippies, and the left with the right. And though it might not yet be obvious, this revolution is already well under way. Cultural anthropologist Gretchen Bakke unveils the many facets of America's energy infrastructure, its most dynamic moments and its most stable ones, and its essential role in personal and national life. The grid, she argues, is in essentially American artifact, one which developed with us: a product of bold expansion, the occasional foolhardy vision, some genius technologies, and constant improvisation. Most of all, her focus is on how Americans are changing the grid right, now, sometimes with gumption and big dreams and sometimes with legislation or the brandishing of guns The Grid tells—entertainingly, perceptively—the story of what has been called "the largest machine in the world": its fascinating history, its problematic present, and its potential role in a brighter, cleaner future. GRETCHEN BAKKE holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Chicago. She has done research on several failing nations, including the Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavia, and Cuba. She is a former fellow in Wesleyan University's Science in Society Program and currently as assistant professor of anthropology at McGill University. Born in Portland, Oregon. Bakke lives in Montreal and calls Washington, D.C., home when she's in the United States. |
| Dedication | "To Guillaume, for whom books are written." |
| ISBN | HB: 978-1-60819-610-4 ePub: 978-1-620040-124-8 |
| Book Dimensions | Width: 5.25″ (5 ¼″) |
| Height: 8.25″ (8 ¼″) | |
| Depth: 0.19″ (3/16″) | |
| Page Count | 388 |
| Contents | Introduction, CHAPTER 1 The Way of the Wind, CHAPTER 2 How the Grid Got Its Wires, CHAPTER 3 The Consolidation of Power, CHAPTER 4 The Cardigan Path, CHAPTER 5 Things Fall Apart, CHAPTER 6 Two Birds, One Stone, CHAPTER 7 A Tale of Two Storms, CHAPTER 8 In Search of the Holy Grail, CHAPTER 9 American Zeitgeist, Afterword: Contemplating Death in the Afternoon, Acknowledgements, Notes, Index |
| Author Photograph | Alex Tran |
| Jacket Design | Patti Ratchford |
| Jacket Illustration | Harry Campbell |
| Jacket Photograph | Nenov/Getty Images |
| Published | 20162007 |
| Typeset | RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury USA (www.bloomsbury.com |
| Copyright | © Gretchen Bakke, 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. |
| Printed and bound in | U.S.A. by Berryville Graphics, Berryville, Virginia |
| Book Format | Hardcover, ePub |
| Quoted Reviews | "Gretchen Bakke shows that everything is, indeed, connected. If we want a cleaner energy future, we're going to need a smarter grid." — ELIZABETH KOLBERT, author of The Sixth Extinction "A remarkable achievement. Bakke deftly shows us how a system most of us are happy to ignore—the electrical grid—is both inseperable from everything we think of as civilization and on the verge of complete failure. With the sort of vivid storytelling that Daniel Yergin's The Prize brought to the story of oil, Bakke recounts how our electrical grid, once the engine of economic progress, has become so out of step with new technologies, business models, and environmental realities that it now threatens that very progress. Yet The Grid is , at heart, a good-news story. Drawing on years of research from the frontlines of the energy business, Bakke shows us the revolutionaries who are already transforming how we make, move, and think about power—and who want to create a future of 'smart' electric power that is not merely green but mobile, local, and even personal. — PAUL ROBERTS, author of The End of Oil and The Impulse Society "If you want to keep your lights on, read The Grid. This is a smart, deeply reported, poetic book about how electricity move through our lives (and why it sometimes doesn't). It's a journey through the nervous system of the modern world, one with profound implications for climate change, notional security, and ensuring America's well-lit future. — JEFF GOODELL, author of Big Coal "Bakke describes the grid as far more than towers and wires . . . She leads readers through a history of the grid and a maze of financial, legal, regulatory, and environmental considerations with sprightly good humor . . . Finally, Bakke sketches a possible design of the 'intelligent grid' of the future . . . A lively analysis."" — Kirkus Reviews |
| Best Seller's List | -- |
| Other | Bloomsbury USA An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 1385 Broadway New York NY 10018 USA 50 Bedford Square London WC1B 3DP UK www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc To find our more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com. Here you will find extracts, author interviews, details of forthcoming events and the option to sign up for our newsletters. 6 8 10 9 7 5 Bloomsbury books may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at specialmarkets@macmillan.com Available as an eBook |
| Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data | Names: Bakke, Gretchen Anna, author. |
| Title: The grid : the fraying wires between Americans and our energy future / Gretchen Bakke. | |
| Description: New York : Bloomsbury USA, 2016. | |
| Subjects: LCSH: Electric power systems—Technological innovations—United States. | |
| Electric power distribution—United States—History. | |
| Clean Energy—United States. | |
| Electric power failures—United States. | |
| Energy Policy—Social aspects—United States. | |
| BISAC: TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Power Resources / Electrical. | |
| SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General. | |
| BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Infrastructure. | |
| TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Environmental / General. | |
| SCIENCE / Electricity. | |
| CIP Number | -- |
| LC Control Number | 2016001376 |
| LC Call Number | 1005.B27 2016 |
| DDC Call Number | 333-793/2—dc23 |
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