Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

Chapter Sixteen: Inherently Resilient Energy Supplies 265links. Energy that travels simply and directly from one’s own rooftop, or downthe street, or across town, is more likely to arrive than energy that must travelhundreds or thousands of miles and be processed and converted in complexdevices along the way. Again, this approach recognizes that any individuallink, or group of links, is prone to failure. But the wiring which connectsthe Chicago filling station’s solar cells to the motors on its gas pumps(Chapter Thirteen) is less likely to go wrong, easier to fix, and less vital to thewhole society than a bulk power grid or a pipeline network.Finally, such a system should rapidly detect, isolate, and repair failures. Rapidisolation of failures requires that•components be combined into larger systems in a hierarchical way, so thatlocal failures do not propagate throughout larger areas;• successive levels of components be only loosely coupled to each other, sothat each stage of operation is little affected by failure or substitution amongthe devices at earlier stages (for example, failures among many modularalcohol plants only slightly reduce total supplies, whereas failure of one keypipeline feeding an oil refinery can shut it down within days); and• energy-supplying devices that are isolated by failed links be able to continueserving local needs independently until they are reconnected.Rapid repair of failures requires that•technical breakdowns be diagnosable and repairable;• technologies be reproducible with conveniently available resources;•failures be bridged, pending repair or replacement, in at least one of four ways:• simply tolerating the consequences of the failure because they are limited and(thanks to efficient energy use) their onset is gradual;•drawing down buffer storage until it can be replenished;• if one component suffered a technical failure, substituting a numericallyredundant component which is still working; or• if the failure was caused by some external event which affected all componentsof a given type, substituting functionally redundant components whose diversityprotected them from failing in the same way.Substitution of a numerically or functionally redundant componentrequires that the replacement devices be on hand or quickly deliverable (in theway in which plug-in circuit boards are used to replace failed boards in telephones).If quick replacement is not possible, substitute devices elsewheremust be able to provide energy to the same user through intact interconnections.Obviously, the ability to repair or substitute also requires that componentsbe simple, understandable, and accessible.This chapter describes a class of energy supply technologies which enjoy