249. Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation: How Silicon Valley Will Make Oil, Nuclear, Natural Gas, Coal, Electric Utilities and Conventional Cars Obsolete by 2030
Rating: ☆☆☆
Recommended by:
Author: Tony Seba
Genre: Non Fiction, Science, Business, Public Policy
291 pages, published June 16, 2014
Reading Format: Book
Summary
In Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation, Silicon Valley Entrepreneur, Stanford Professor and Futurist Tony Seba writes about the coming disruption in energy and transportation. With a plethora of facts and arguments, Seba sets forth his thesis that wind and solar will be the dominate form of energy within the next ten years and that electric, self driving cars will be ubiquitous.
Quotes
“When the wind of change blows, some build walls, others build windmills.” – Chinese Proverb.”
“The solar virtuous cycle is in motion. The lower cost of solar leads to increased market adoption, and this, in turn, lowers the perceived risk and attracts more capital at a lower cost for capital. And this, in turn, lowers the cost of solar, which leads to increased market adoption, not to mention increased investment, more innovation, and even lower costs for capital. Once this virtuous cycle reaches critical mass, market growth will accelerate. Solar will become unstoppable and the incumbents will be disrupted.”
“The information technology revolution was not brought about only by the miniaturization of technologies. This was a transition from a supplier-centric, centralized information model to a user-centric, participatory information model.”
“The age of centralized, command-and-control, extraction-resource-based energy sources (oil, gas, coal and nuclear) will not end because we run out of petroleum, natural gas, coal, or uranium. It will end because these energy sources, the business models they employ, and the products that sustain them will be disrupted by superior technologies, product architectures, and business models. Compelling new technologies such as solar, wind, electric vehicles, and autonomous (self-driving) cars will disrupt and sweep away the energy industry as we know it.”
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
My Take
I saw Technology Disruption expert Tony Seba give the keynote speech for the 2018 Conference on World Affairs in Boulder, Colorado and was intrigued by his predictions (backed up by facts) that we were rapidly transitioning to solar energy, as well as electric, self driving cars because the transition is compelling from an economic point of view. At the the Conference, Seba was well received by both the left (solar and electric cars are huge in the climate change battle) and the right (climate change will be addressed by the market, not by a big government solution). If this topic interests you, check out his talk or, if you want to go deeper, then read this book. He’s convinced me. My next house will be solar and my next car is likely to be electric.
