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Author Bakke, Gretchen Anna, author.

Title The grid : the fraying wires between Americans and our energy future / Gretchen Bakke.

Publication Info. New York : Bloomsbury USA, 2016.

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Avon Free Public Library - Adult Department  333.7932 BAKKE    Check Shelf
 Enfield, Main Library - Adult Department  333.793 BAK    Check Shelf
 Marlborough, Richmond Memorial Library - Adult Department  333.79 BAKKE    Check Shelf
 New Britain, Main Library - Non Fiction  333.79 BAK    Check Shelf
 Newington, Lucy Robbins Welles Library - Adult Department  333.793 BAKKE    Check Shelf
 Plainville Public Library - Non Fiction  333.793 BAK    DUE 04-01-24
 Simsbury Public Library - Non Fiction  333.7932 BAKKE    Check Shelf
 West Hartford, Noah Webster Library - Non Fiction  333.7932 BAKKE    Check Shelf
 Wethersfield Public Library - Non Fiction  333.79 BAKKE    Check Shelf
Description xxx, 352 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Summary "The grid is an accident of history and of culture, in no way intrinsic to how we produce, deliver and consume electrical power. Yet this is the system the United States ended up with, a jerry-built structure now so rickety and near collapse that a strong wind or a hot day can bring it to a grinding halt. The grid is now under threat from a new source: renewable and variable energy, which puts stress on its logics as much as its components. In entertaining, perceptive, and deeply researched fashion, cultural anthropologist Gretchen Bakke uses the history of an increasingly outdated infrastructure to show how the United States has gone from seemingly infinite technological prowess to a land of structural instability. She brings humor and a bright eye to contemporary solutions and to the often surprising ways in which these succeed or fail. And the consequences of failure are significant. Our national electrical grid grew during an era when monopoly, centralization and standardization meant strength. Yet as we've increasingly become a nation that caters to local needs, and as a plethora of new, renewable energy sources comes on line, our massive system is dangerously out of step. Charting the history of our electrical grid, Bakke helps us see what we all take for granted, shows it as central to our culture and identity as a people, and reveals it to be the linchpin in our aspirations for a clean energy future"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages [295]-342) and index.
Contents The Way of the Wind -- How the Grid Got Its Wires -- The Consolidation of Power -- The Cardigan Path -- Things Fall Apart -- Two Birds, One Stone -- A Tale of Two Storms -- In Search of the Holy Grail -- American Zeitgeist.
Subject Electric power systems -- Technological innovations -- United States.
Electric power distribution -- United States -- History.
Clean energy -- United States.
Electric power failures -- United States.
Energy policy -- Social aspects -- United States.
TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Power Resources / Electrical.
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Infrastructure.
TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Environmental / General.
SCIENCE / Electricity.
Clean energy. (OCoLC)fst01920487
Electric power distribution. (OCoLC)fst00905420
Electric power failures. (OCoLC)fst00905465
Electric power systems -- Technological innovations. (OCoLC)fst00905593
Energy policy -- Social aspects. (OCoLC)fst00910232
United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
Genre/Form History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
ISBN 9781608196104 (hardback)
1608196100 (hardback)
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