Electrify Everything

The Transition To Renewables Is Happening Now

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

I take pride in identifying simple, fundamental things, things that are staring us in the face and yet we can’t see them.

In the spring of 2024, I spent a month in the foothills of the Himalayas, in a small north Indian town called Darjeeling

.Before I had made this trip, I would always tell people that I just needed my laptop and Wi-Fi and I could work from anywhere. But on this trip, I realized I needed one other thing: Electricity.

Owing to frequent power cuts, I came to the realization that I actually need my Laptop, Wi-Fi and Electricity, for me to do my work from anywhere. Those are the essentials.

And that kind of forced me to think about our history with Electricity and our future with Electricity.

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Quick History on Electricity:

The ancient Greeks discovered static electricity around 600 BCE by rubbing amber, but it wasn’t until the 18th century that scientists like Benjamin Franklin (1752) conducted experiments linking electricity to lightning.

Michael Faraday's work on electromagnetic induction in 1831 paved the way for generating electric power.

Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb in 1879, revolutionizing lighting.

Around the same time, Nikola Tesla developed AC (alternating current) systems, enabling long-distance electricity transmission.

With electricity becoming widespread in the 20th century, several appliances transformed daily life:

• Electric Iron (1882)

• Electric Fan (1886)

• Refrigerator (1913)

• Vacuum Cleaner (1901)

• Washing Machine (1908)

• Radio (1920s)

• Television (1927)

• Microwave Oven (1945)

• Computer (1940s onward)

Over time, electricity enabled an era of convenience, comfort, and technological innovation, shaping the modern world we know today.

So before 1752, electricity would have meant nothing to anyone and today, it is everywhere, already. We are not even in the future yet, or are we?

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Why Is Electricity So Important?

My Substack’s About Me section lists the following as areas that I focus on and like to invest in: Energy Transition, Microchips/Semiconductors, Cyber Security, Robotics, AI, Digitalization of the world, Battery Tech, Biotech, Quantum Computing, Freelancing (Gig/Share economy), Space, Genomics, Business & Marketing.

Electricity, a commodity, sounds so boring but each one of these techs (mentioned above) is enabled by electricity. When we have more electric cars, more wearables, more AI, more crypto, and so on, then where does this need for electricity go?

I would go so far as to say that the only thing that will matter in the future is the cost of electricity. I believe we already live in what I like to call “The Age of Excess”.

You can get a chauffeur driven car to come pick you up in a few minutes, you are practically connected to information anytime you like, you now even have a digital assistant to help you, you have your entire life’s worth of mix-tape in your pocket and you can literally watch anything in the world as and when you want to watch it. Our parents didn’t have any of this and I believe we are already well into the “The Age of Excess”. But hold up! Robotics will take us deep into the paint.

Once we have humanoid, non-humanoid and anthropomorphic robots (which I think are very close), then everything will equate down to cost of electricity. You want to do farming and grow food, robots will do that, want to build a house, robots will do it, need a car and repair civil infrastructure, robots! And robots run on electricity.

In a world where all physical and intellectual labour is being done by robots, the cost of electricity will become the most important factor. Add to that the other industries that I mentioned earlier further justifies how important electricity will be in the future.

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