đź”® Why energy tech is eating the world
I wrote a column for the Financial Times on techno-energy reshaping the world. What follows today for readers of Exponential View is a deep dive into this question. We’ll start by exploring how energy went from being a commodity to being a technology; we’ll look at solar, wind and batteries in particular; and finally, we’ll wrap up by outlining six ways to reimagine energy. Let’s go!
Britain will unplug its last coal power station at the end of this month, 142 years since the world’s first coal power plant was built in London and 264 years since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
As the turbines fall silent, Britain will become the first G7 country to end its reliance on coal-fired electricity. Gone are the days of what English poet William Blake described in 1808 as the “dark satanic mills”.
For over three centuries, energy has been a commodity: finite, unevenly distributed and subject to the whims of markets and politics. But that paradigm has collapsed.
