A question of power Electricity and the wealth of nations

Of all the aspects of modern life in the developed world, flipping a switch and having the lights come on ranks as one of the most underrated. It's good to be reminded, as Bryce does through powerful examples, that such convenience was unheard of until the late nineteenth century, when Thomas Edison brought safe electricity to the masses. Even then, parts of rural America labored off the grid through the 1940s, and today there remain vast swaths of Third World nations that have never enjoyed the benefits to health and prosperity that come from readily accessible and reliable electric power. In this wide-ranging history of electricity, power expert Bryce takes readers beyond the table lamp and microwave to demonstrate how crucial safe, dependable, and plentiful electricity is to a host of contemporary innovations, from cryptocurrency mining to marijuana cultivation. With its supply increasingly vulnerable to threats from sabotage and climate change, the global reliance on electricity is one that bears monitoring as energy policies and politics struggle to keep pace with demand and usage.--Carol Haggas Copyright 2020 Booklist

Shocking revelations about electricity, "the apex predator of the energy kingdom."Vladimir Lenin once said, "communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country." Energy journalist Bryce (Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper: How Innovation Keeps Proving the Catastrophists Wrong, 2014, etc.) writes that there are three categories by which the 200-odd nations of the world can be classified: the "unplugged countries," with electricity use under 1,000 kilowatt hours/capita/year; the "low-watt" countries, from 1,000 to 4,000 kWh; and the "high-watt" countries, where electricity use exceeds 4,000 kWh annually. In keeping with other economic gauges, it's disheartening to note that almost half of the planet's population falls into the first category, while many former communist nations are in the second, and the third, not surprisingly, has a far higher average GDP than the restand comprises less than 20% of the world's total population. Like so much else in the world, electricity is unevenly distributed, with marked disparities. Not that anyone should feel secure in the wealthier domains: Climate change is wreaking havoc with the grid while "saboteurs are constantly probing for weaknesses." With a growing world population, especially in developing countries, increased demand will prove a problem. As in past books, Bryce considers renewables to be less efficient than the fossil fuels that seem not yet to have reached their peak, to say nothing of nuclear power, which he advocates, deeming himself a "proponent of what I call N2N, or natural gas to nuclear." As he writes, "the hard reality is that there are no quick or easy solutions. Energy transitions take decades." That more fossil fuels mean more climate change doesn't seem to faze the author, but hard geopolitical and economic realities do: Iraq is now dependent on Iran for about 15% of its energy "despite objections from the Donald Trump administration," and the "Giant Five" tech companiesApple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft"are creating their own private grids," becoming, "in effect, electric utilities."A robust look at where the juice flows around the planetand its planetary implications. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.