Powering the Dream

by Madrigal, Alexis

• ISBN13: 9780306818851
• ISBN10: 030681885X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-03-29
• Publisher: Da Capo Pr

Summary

Few today realize that electric cabs dominated Manhattan's streets in the 1890s; that Boise, Idaho, had a geothermal heating system in 1910; or that the first megawatt turbine in the world was built in 1941 by the son of publishing magnate G. P. Putnam--a feat that would not be duplicated for another forty years. Likewise, while many remember the oil embargo of the 1970s, few are aware that it led to a corresponding explosion in green-technology research that was only derailed when energy prices later dropped. In other words: We've been here before. Although we may have failed, America has had the chance to put our world on a more sustainable path. Americans have, in fact, been inventing green for more than a century. Half compendium of lost opportunities, half hopeful look toward the future, Powering the Dreamtells the stories of the brilliant, often irascible inventors who foresaw our current problems, tried to invent cheap and energy renewable solutions, and drew the blueprint for a green future.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
The Dream of a More Perfect Power	p. 7
Profit, Salvation	p. 9
The First Green-Technology Futurist	p. 13
The Utopia Commercial	p. 17
Prescribing for the Globe Itself	p. 22
What Was	p. 31
Steam-Powered America	p. 33
The Wind and the West	p. 35
The Parable of Petrolia	p. 48
Wave Motors and Airplanes	p. 53
Compressed Air and Electricity	p. 62
What Might Have Been	p. 69
The National Electric Transportation System That Almost Was	p. 71
Solar Hot Water, Day and Night	p. 84
The Solar Home of the 1950s	p. 90
The Solar Energy Research Institute	p. 103
The Meaning of Luz	p. 117
How to Burn a Biological Library	p. 137
Lessons From the Great Energy Rethink	p. 145
What Happens When an Energy System Breaks	p. 147
Thermodynamics	p. 152
Transcendentalism	p. 169
Tools	p. 181
Technology	p. 191
Innovation and the Future	p. 199
Google's RE < C Challenge	p. 201
The First Megawatt and Failing Smart	p. 208
What Green Tech Can Learn from Nuclear Power's Rise and Fall	p. 221
The 5-Cent Turbine and the Siren Call of the Breakthrough	p. 235
Energy Storage and the Return of Compressed Air	p. 253
ôThrow Software at the Problemö	p. 260
Rehumanizing Environmentalism	p. 274
Notes	p. 289
Bibliography	p. 315
Index	p. 347
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