AP Photo/Denis Farrell
DCL
We already love distributed energy generation here in the U.S., for the potential it has to power our nation more efficiently than the centralized network we currently rely on.
Yet it seems rare that this option is accounted for when power needs in the world's poorest places are calculated.
In a recent column praising the benefits of distributed power generation, The Economist cites interesting statistics from the UN and International Energy Agency: expanding centralized infrastructure would require annual investments $35 - $40 billion until 2030 in order for everyone in the world to have power in their homes—and at the current rate of development, 16 percent of people worldwide will still have no electricity by 2030.
But, as The Economist asks, why wait? Homes in remote and poor areas of the world could be powered much sooner—in some areas trials have already started—with locally-sourced, renewable energy.
From efficient cookstoves to solar-powered water purification to make-it-yourself solar lanterns, the technology is already there.
To be sure, there are hurdles to full-scale development, but like in the U.S., the benefits would far outweigh the challenges. Other countries can verify that—according to Amory Lovins, micropower provides other industrial countries with up to more than half of all their electricity consumption, and in 2006 provided a full third of the world's new electricity.
The U.S. may be more industrialized than most of Africa, but we have in common at least one thing: a long way to go in cleaning up and improving—distributing—our energy supply.
