Powering up in 2020

In my community the spring always is a time for celebration. The dreary days of late winter are over, the days become longer and the sun rises more and more to the north. We have just past the celebration of Eostar and now look forward to Beltane. Among the younger members of the community Beltane does tend to get a bit randy, however most of us older folks just enjoy finally getting outside.

When the great recession began to wind down in 2014, a lot of people had already adopted a minimalist life style. Gone were the McMansions and the huge, largely unneeded SUV’s. Overall, people’s energy needs were much lower than that of the last century. The biggest innovation in the energy field was not so much new forms of energy, but how people began to get their energy delivered.

In 2007, scientists were able to transmit electrical energy through the air. Granted, it was a short distance but it was a start. By the time 2018 had rolled around, the technique had been perfected and people now received their electrical power beamed to them from satellites in geo synchronous orbit. The power is generated mostly in Nevada by companies like Ausra, beamed up to the satellites and then redirected to the consumers. Downed wires from storms are only a dim memory.

Granted, there are still some problems. Every now and then one of the satellites gets hit by space debris but that happens infrequently. Because our energy demands are so low, we fall back on the old fuel cells, treadle power, and our small hydro plant located further up the mountain.