21 april 2008

"....yet the developping world ( rural China,India and Africa ) has the most promising markets for Do-it-Yourself power. With the long distance power network underdevelopped or nonexistant (as in much of Africa),local generation of electricity allows communities and businesses to leapfrog multibillion-dollar investments in power plants and transmission lines.

In India, the local governement announced a new project to fund biomass and wind generators for rural communities...with the exception of wind turbines,few of the new local power sources are yet competitive with traditional power plants. What's more,local power production could save much of the usd $22 trillion the IEA estimates to upgrade the distribution infrastructure by 2030.

You don't need to invest in a big grid if you have a lot of micropower.

Will all this amount to a " paradigm switch" from central utilities to local power? Technology might be disruptive but changing behavior in the way we use energy is going to be incremental says Vinod Khosla,a leading california venture capitalist.