Based on Norberg's travels for the television documentary Power to the People, his investigation peels back the layers of this global challenge, often questioning the conventional wisdom on what works and what doesn't. His journey starts in the Moroccan bazaars of Marrakech, which functioned fine for eons without modern conveniences, but where electric lights, computers, cell phones and credit card readers are now everywhere. Even more telling is Norberg's journey to a remote Berber village in the Sahara Desert. More than half the world still cooks its food over open flames but this is rapidly changing, including here, where women now cook on gas stoves, and some even have refrigerators.by KEVIN CZARZASTY
Mosaic
Power, a company taking electric hot water heaters and aggregating them to form
a virtual power plant, is proving that clean energy in the private sector can
flourish. By utilizing Demand Response or "Grid Regulation,"
Mosaic Power reacts to the needs of the grid in 2 second increments rather than
standard 20 minute increments. Their success suggests that private,
environmentally conscious firms are the answer to America's energy needs--not burdensome
government bureaucracy such as the federal EPA.
All
too often...
The opposing voice--calling for free markets and free minds--is all too often ignored. Can't free people bring spontaneous order to problems, as economist FA Hayek spent a lifetime proving? Mosiac Power's edge over a
government-forced plan is evident in their website description: "Adding
intelligence to the power grid means using your existing assets to deploy more
clean and renewable energy, and save more money." To those arguing
for government centralization, I challenge you to find a government bureaucracy
able to add intelligence, while increasing utility for consumers, while
enabling reinvestment of existing assets�while saving money!
There is of course the possibility that Mosaic Power fails--though recent
trends suggest their position in the market is healthy. If failure
is the case, would that really be the worst scenario for clean energy?
While subsidized public sector failures such as Solyndra
harm the tax payer and consumer, the failure of a private company allows for capital to be reallocated to other, more promising organizations. Put
simply, there's no sense in beating a dead horse, nor is their any sense in
continually feeding a dead horse. In a
free society, private individuals make private risks and achieve private profits. In a coercive society, private individuals
make socialized risks for private profits.
Hopefully
success stories such as Mosaic Power will serve as a reminder: Private entrepreneurs
have always and will always be preferable over government control of economics�particularly in the case of clean energy.
