The gunfire attack on two power substations in North Carolina shut power off for thousands in the middle of a severe cold wave, and the Russian attacks on Ukrainian power stations shut off power for millions in the Ukrainian winter. Both brought to mind a conversation I had with a physicist friend. I suggested we’d be safer if we generated some of our own power – a system known as distributed power. He responded that it would be much more expensive that way.
Nevertheless, with information from other friends in the solar power industry, we put in solar panels and saved a lot of money. When we did it a decade ago, we were advised against installing batteries, so the power had to go through the grid. Since then the costs of making power at our homes or workplaces has come way down and the cost and efficiency of batteries has gone way up. So the cost of a system that could run by itself without the grid is much lower now. Those who have it won’t have their power knocked out because some terrorist does something somewhere else. They aren’t dependent on power lines.
One of those friends took us through his house and showed us his battery system so he could go completely off the grid, except as a backup.
He did one thing that’s easier with new construction. In this latitude, windows facing due south get zero summer sun and maximum winter sun. A brick wall or fireplace opposite those windows smooths out the heat between day and night. That might be harder in some locations but, once built, what’s called passive solar heating is free.
Incidentally, farmers have used windmills for independent, off-the-grid wind power as long as I can remember. They dot the landscape.
Another friend and former colleague took us to meet his family and see the home where he grew up outside Nairobi, Kenya. His dad built the house largely with his own hands with a system of rain barrels to catch the water and make it available as needed. That gave them an independent water system though it did take some maintenance to make sure it was clean. Some use rain barrels in this country and we tried it though we had problems installing them properly.
Our physicist friend was partly right – all these things require time, money or both, though the expense is getting smaller and much can be built in, becoming virtually permanent. We all need each other in lots of ways but the things we can do for ourselves can make us safer. It’s a shame to have to think that way, to have to realize that there are real risks to trading with Russia, China, the local energy company or any who could use those trade relations to coerce or extort from us. But that’s the price of a world where people empower themselves to take whatever they want from others – internationally or in our own communities. It’s the reason for law. And one more reason to go solar for everyone’s benefit.
Steve Gottlieb’s latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran.
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