Mass Electrification Means a Very Different Energy Grid – Bill Gates and Elon Musk Provide Their Perspectives

At a recent Edison Electric Institute (EEI) conference, keynote speakers Bill Gates and Elon Musk described their visions of mass electrification. With today’s energy demands being met by a combination of electricity from renewable and non-renewable sources, and the balance coming from fossil fuels for industrial and heating uses, Musk told the conference attendees that only a tripling of sustainable electricity will produce a successful low-carbon future.  Bill Gates also sees a very different grid from the one presently in place. Gates has been writing about modernizing the power grid, noting that most of the current transmission and distribution infrastructure dates back to the 1950s to 1970s.  He describes the current state of the grid as being past its 50-year best-before date.