Many people are commenting on our failing infrastructure, and rightfully so. And many people are pointing out our electrical grid.
Some of the transformers are over a 100 years old, and they were basically built in place. There is no one alive today who has experience in creating them anew, or fixing them. If they go down because of overloading or sabotage, there is almost nothing we can do about it.
At that time, we will have to relearn all of our lost experience. And that may mean years of a city being without power.
Of course, a better plan would be to just ditch the grid.
Distributed electrical production will be the norm of the future.
It is really the only solution to our problem.
However, that goes directly against TPTshouldn'tB. They want centralized control. They want to be able to turn off your power whenever they feel you must be punished. And, so i believe there will be great pushback to the first small community sized power production systems.
We do not have the skilled people, the money, or the resources to rebuild our electric grid infrastructure. When we put these things in, copper was cheap. Winding coils by hand was normal. And we had lots of capital to do these big projects.
I remember putting in several electric poles to get power to a property we would live on as a kid. It was expensive, but not that expensive. (Not compared to the house or the property back then) Now, if you have to put in more than two poles, it costs more than your house. And often it can cost more than putting in a whole, off grid, solar system.
As small scale electric production systems are made, and then are made cheaper/more efficient, the old electric companies will not be able to compete. And the further the old infrastructure deteriorates, the further behind the power companies will fall. Further it will fall until it is no longer feasible for the power companies to stay in business.
(The biggest problem is that the power companies have not built enough new power plants to keep up with demand. And this is because their really isn't more fuel to fuel the new power plant. To do that we need to increase mining, and then we need to increase train tracks. We do not have the excess fuel and distribution to build new power plants.)
One example - Geothermal
Many people reading this are already thinking, but Builder, solar doesn't work everywhere. Wind is failing. Wherefor are we going to get this new, small community sized, electrical generation?
Well, here is one, geothermal. Geothermal can be placed almost anywhere on earth. You go down, and the heat increases. Our planet is hot. Probably too hot.
The problem that most have is they think of boiling water. And to get above 212° F /100° C you need to drill down about 5 miles. And that is just a bit to far, and you start getting into explosive gasses and hot spots. Dangerous as well as difficult to drill.
Instead of boiling water, we can boil another refrigerant. (something that expands when boiled, and then can go back to liquid, continually) Such as Trichloro-trifluoroethane. This refrigerant is mostly used to clean out coils of refrigerators. However, this substance boils at 118°F / 48°C which is higher than air temperature (which means it can reliquify just by putting it through an air exposed radiator) and low enough that you can boil it with heat from about 3 miles down.
So, you now just need to drill a 3 mile deep hole (similar to most oil wells, they are 3 miles long, not deep) and you will have continuous power for probably as long as the parts continue to be maintained.
This is not a build it and forget it thing like photovoltaic solar. (this is why solar is popular) You need someone who knows how to maintain a turbine and boiler. And you will need someone to call when things go really wrong. But any auto mechanic can learn these things, they are less complex than a modern car.
So, here we have a viable, continuous, non-polluting energy source for our future needs.
What to do when the power goes out
The grid is nice, in that everyone can get power from just about anywhere. And so, there is "redundancy" for any small failures.
However, there are two HUGE failure modes. Small communities that have only one incoming power line (almost every small town has only one.) And when the system goes over 100% capacity, it shuts down parts of it, or breaks the whole thing.
So, when the grid breaks, there is not a simple backup system. And because corporations want maximum profit, there is no incentive to put in extra capacity just for those few days of extreme heat/AC use.
The backup plan for a failure in a bunch of local small community system is to go to the next community over, while yours is being repaired. Quite an easy and practical system. Especially since failures will almost always be local.
This lack of backup is going to become extremely apparent as more and more of our old system breaks down. (or is sabotaged)
There are other possible energy sources for small community electric production, such as wave and real-solar, but these are more constrained by local (just like hydroelectric). And we will see these implemented as well, since they are actually cheaper in the initial cost.
The thing that is not possible is for us to keep on with what we have now. We do not have the money, or the skilled labor to replace/upgrade everything. We especially do not have the political willpower to do this. Especially with all the "green" activists shutting down everything, even if it would make things more green.
I see local electric production as the normal for the future. I especially like that it will greatly upset the power of the elite. "What? People taking back their power, and creating their own power? How will we continue to milk them for money?"