Here are Gore's words in Newsweek:
Taking a page from the early development of ARPANET, which ultimately became the Internet, we will rely on new kinds of distribution networks for electricity and liquid fuels. We will be less dependent on large, centralized coal-generating plants and massive oil refineries. Societies of the future will rely on small, diversified and renewable sources of energy, ranging from windmills and solar photovoltaics to second-generation ethanol- and biodiesel-production facilities. Widely dispersed throughout the countryside, these streamlined facilities will make the industrialized world more secure and less dependent on unstable and threatening oil-producing nations.
As soon as Gore mentions the Internet, many poke fun at him for "inventing" it. Gore never said he "invented" it; but I think he did more than anyone else in government to encourage its development. And the Internet is bringing huge economic results. Why? Because it is a decentralizing medium that allows all sorts of individuals all over the place to mix their ideas with others to come up with helpful innovations.
The same may be expected from an Electranet. Like the Internet, the Electranet will be a decentralizing medium. Like the Internet, the Electranet will allow people anywhere to contribute - not with information but with energy. Like the Internet, the Electranet will allow all of us to use our brains to help develop new and sustainable energy sources that will remove our dependence on fossil fuels.
Some of us would be installing solar panels on the roofs of our homes or buildings. Others would be working with windmills. Still others with fuel cells of various types. Many others with ideas we have not heard about yet.
This is not "pie in the sky." California is already in the vanguard:
Last year Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law the Million Solar Roofs bill, written by Sen. Kevin Murray, D-Culver City. Beyond building a million solar roofs in the next decade, the law also increases the credit that customers can get for generating their own solar energy.
And the energy would be bought by the utilities.
All of this will be accomplished with a "smart" grid, which California is working on. But Gore's Electranet requires a "smart" grid covering the entire nation. The sooner we develop one, the sooner we will be able to put the country at work to experiment with new sources of energy, and the sooner America can be an energy independent nation.
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