Jon Boone, environmentalist, naturalist, bird and nature artist, wind energy expert: So how to make electricity in the Sierra Club's world of the future? The answer: RENEWABLES! Lots of wind and solar. And a move away from central grid dependency by making wind especially part of a distributed generation micro-grid system located near demand centers. All this would be supported by the so-called smart grid, requiring substantial new transmission lines in an effort to improve efficiency and reliability, thereby saving fossil fuel and avoiding carbon emissions while conserving demand by moving it to off-peak hours. The image, but hardly the reality, is one of downsizing and intimacy, and a transition away from centralized control.
