Nikola Tesla dreamed of free electricity. What happened?
Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if electricity was free?We all recognize the name Tesla in the well-known trademark of entrepreneur Elon Musk and his electric cars, but what about Tesla, the man?
More than 100 years ago, Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) invented alternating current (AC), the polyphase alternating current system, which laid the foundation for today’s mass-produced power supply.
Nikola Tesla, man or magician?
From the invention of the particle beam to radar, the electric car, robotics, and remote-controlled drones, Tesla mental-modelled solutions to problems with such clarity of mind that he could visualise the individual parts of a machine or mechanism in three dimensions. Then run simulations in his head and check for wear and tear.
He even pioneered interplanetary radio communication with Guglielmo Marconi. He
He later fell out with Marconi when the US Patent Office mysteriously overturned his patents and effectively credited Marconi with the invention of the radio; who was, in fact, using several of Tesla’s patents.
Tesla was so far ahead of his time, the genius of many of his early inventions — used to develop the radio and television, fluorescent and induction lighting, and MRIs and X-rays –- only came to light after his death.
He dreamed of free electricity for all
Tesla’s long-held dream was to create a source of inexhaustible, clean energy that was free for everyone. He strongly opposed centralised coal-fired power stations that spewed carbon dioxide into the air that humans breathed.
Image: Matthew Henry, Unsplash
He believed that the Earth had “fluid electrical charges” running beneath its surface, that when interrupted by a series of electrical discharges at repeated set intervals, would generate a limitless power supply by generating immense low-frequency electrical waves.
One of Tesla’s most extraordinary experiments was to transmit electrical power over long distances without wires or cables — a feat that has baffled scientists ever since.
His grand vision was to free humankind from the burdens of extracting, pumping, transporting, and burning fossil fuels — which he viewed as “sinful waste”.
“Ignorant, unimaginative people, consumed by self-interest”
Tesla was eventually undone by what he called “ignorant, unimaginative people, consumed by self-interest”— powerful men that sought to protect the immensely profitable, low-tech industries they had spent a lifetime building.
Today’s fossil-fuel industry, a legacy of that past, has fought just as hard in recent decades to protect the same interests — Luddites and laggards afraid of losing their companies to the wind, sun, and zero point field.
A cohort of carbon-captured conspirators
The title of a new book by award-winning journalist Marian Wilkinson refers to the same cohort of carbon-captured conspirators as the Carbon Club: How a network of influential climate skeptics, politicians and business leaders fought to control climate policy.
“For decades our politicians have been fighting the climate wars fueled by the carbon club. But despite the political carnage, the science of climate change has not been defeated.”
The carbon club feared that the fossil-fueled economy would indeed come to an abrupt halt if coal became just the fossilized remnants of ancient plant life and nothing more.
In short: we rode on the horse’s back until the combustion engine, and we’re now supposed to ride on the back of a coal-fired power station until the resulting toxicity and global ecological imbalances make life so unhealthy as to become unbearable for all species and ecology, while the equally ignorant masses continue to be mesmerized and thus ruled by the spell of the economic oligarchy? How utterly unimaginative!
Climate change may very well be, among other things, the very real effect of a very long story of taking and not giving; which is itself a symptom of an unhealthy worldview, a distortion of the natural universal principles with an attempt at willfulness and control as separate from the unifying principle of love, or to identify as separate from the collective, be that genetically, morally, or in dogmatic belief.
So— coming back up to the tip of the iceberg— what’s the obsession with old-world technology and coal, as opposed to new renewables technology and new jobs, that seems to incite such lunacy?
Technology has improved renewables
With the latest flexibility of pumped hydro, wind and solar, and the advent of commercial battery storage, running coal-fired power stations 24/7 should be relegated to the “too dumb basket”.
The Tesla battery that is soon to be upgraded to 150 megawatts is a prime example of science and technology winning over political recalcitrance.
One market operator declared that it dispatched power faster than conventional power stations and was instrumental in pushing down energy prices.
Not to mention the even “bigger benefit” —the main point— of reducing carbon emissions.
It might be cleaner, but will it be cheaper?
We may need to shift away from letting the familiar fear based belief systems define us, and begin to take responsibility for understanding and choosing how we want to invest in our life. We can start by defining and assigning our own value to renewables, rather than complain about the change.
In a capitalist-driven world, in which executive bonuses remain beholden to maximizing profits, will your electricity bill actually be lower if we switch to renewables?
Not likely if we as a collective sit back and allow history to repeat itself. But this is the day and age for making changes that will affect our life for generations to come.
Municipalities may find value in investing in their own utility or energy infrastructure, to rival big coms, such as in Boulder, CO, for example. And off grid living can invest in new tech for independent generators of all kinds. This is an evolving process of initiating choice for decentralized living. And it raises many questions of where independence meets the collective where governance or taxes are concerned.
As far as cost, if your energy still comes off the commercial grid, your electricity bill will have some hefty baggage attached. Infrastructure, the poles and wires, account for about half the cost on your electricity bill. Twenty-five per cent is the wholesale cost of the power itself, and the balance is consumed by the retailer’s profit margins and operating costs.
Oh, and you can add another 10 per cent to the bill for the excess voltage surging through the grid to your home. The allowable range is 216 to 253 volts, and the nominal voltage is around 230 but is often higher. Once again, fixing it is considered too costly.
So, unless you’re running your own rooftop solar system, a cheaper wholesale price courtesy of renewables might only amount to a few per cent.
And lest we forget, the already-aging original infrastructure can only get older and require more and more maintenance.
Tesla’s biggest mistake was that he cared more about the people than he did about the profit
John J. O’Neill wrote in his biography of Tesla:
“The panorama of human evolution is illumined by sudden bursts of dazzling brilliance in intellectual accomplishments that throw their beams far ahead to give us a glimpse of the distant future, that we may more correctly guide our wavering steps today.”
Just think, a man ahead of his time might have brought clean and free electricity to everyone, and averted dangerous climate change well before it had even begun.
But unfortunately for Tesla, along with the natural world and all of us living today and the generations to come, JP Morgan and his other backers at the time saw his dream of free energy as a threat to their business model. In short: a threat to capitalism, through which they made their millions.
Tesla was unable to secure any financial backing after JP Morgan pulled out, and shortly after he was declared bankrupt.
Tesla, the genius, whose collective dream was thwarted by a narrow minded cohort, lived a humble existence in a New York apartment until his death in 1943.
But what would have the world been like if electricity was clean and fee for everyone?