The Grid: Electrical Infrastructure for a New Era

by Gretchen Bakke

The surcharge does usually factor into a utility’s budget for the immediate purchase and longer-term investment in renewable power. You may not get to use 100 percent wind power, but you do subsidize the increase of this means of making electricity for everyone on the grid over the long haul. The fact that this choice is available allows individuals to take a measure of fiscal responsibility onto their own shoulders as a means of committing to immaterial fuel sources that make sense to them. The argument, then, that our grid wouldn’t be in such a dire state if only people were willing to pay more for their electricity is largely moot. People are willing to pay more, but only for certain things. The less solid these things, the less visible, and the more thoroughly integrated into the built environment they are, the more likely individuals and companies are to volunteer their money for the cause.