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Page added on January 17, 2011
Jeremy Rifkin: The third Industrial Revolution
American economist Jeremy Rifkin has an optimistic take on what is generally considered a crisis, and believes peak oil is actually driving us to a new and more sustainable world.
“We are on the cusp of a Third Industrial Revolution that could give us an open door to a new post fossil fuel era,” Rifkin told a packed audience at the recent IIDEX Conference in Toronto.
“It was the first industrial revolution that brought together print and literacy with coal, steam and rail,” said Rifkin. “The second combined the telegraph and telephone with the internal combustion engine and oil.”
“What we have now is a possibility of a distributed energy revolution. Each of us can create our own energy, store it, and then distribute it to each other,” he said.
Rifkin’s Third Industrial Revolution involves a network of millions of buildings that will produce renewable energy through solar, wind and wave power and distribute through a de-centralized network he calls “the inter-grid.”
“We’re going to make the power grid of the world smart and intelligent like the Internet, said Rifkin. “So that when millions and millions of us load power in our own buildings, store it in the form of hydrogen, and distribute it peer to peer to each other, much like we store digital media and distribute via the Internet.”
With the first inter-grids going up in the US this year in Houston, Boulder Colorado and Southern California, Rifkin believes that the only barrier we face is a commitment to move forward.
“The Third Industrial Revolution is a game plan,” he said. “I think we have the science and technology to do this, but it will mean nothing unless there’s a change of will.”
– – –
5 pillars of a carbon-free world
The European Union (EU) has already adopted Rifkin’s plan to achieve a fossil-free future – the Five Pillars on which the Third Industrial Revolution will be built.
1st Pillar – Expanded generation and use of renewable energy
– Wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and wave power are key
– The EU has committed to achieving a target of 20% reduction in CO2 emissions and 20% renewable production by 2020, or one-third of Europe’s current electricity production
2nd Pillar – Buildings as power plants
– Shifting from centralized power generation and distribution
– Buildings will become “prosumers’ – producing consumers
– Homes, schools, offices and factories will become part of a network of renewable power plants
– The EU has committed to converting all 191 million buildings in Europe to produce power through solar, wind and other renewable forms of energy
3rd Pillar – Hydrogen Storage
– Developing hydrogen and other storage technologies
– Allows for the storage of surplus energy
– The EU has committed 8 billion Euros for development of hydrogen technologies
4th Pillar – Development of the Inter-Grid
– Development of the inter-grid – a smart-grid that will allow for stored energy to be distributed much like today’s Internet
5th Pillar – Plug-In Ready
– Development of a new energy infrastructure for transportation that supports plug-in vehicles
– Project Get Ready and A Better Place are currently working toward making cities plug-in ready
– – –
Peak oil – a looming crisis
In 1956, American geoscientist M. King Hubbert first introduced the concept of peak oil – the point of maximum oil production.
According to Peak Oil Theory:
– All finite resources have a beginning, middle, and an end of production
– Production will eventually reach a level of maximum output
– Peak oil production occurs when approximately half of the oil has been extracted
– Oil becomes more difficult and expensive as wells pass their mid-point
– This will drive up costs and environmental impacts – the harder it is to extract oil, the greater the environmental damage, as witnessed by the Alberta tar sands
13 Comments on "Jeremy Rifkin: The third Industrial Revolution"
Kenz300 on Mon, 17th Jan 2011 1:05 am
Hope springs eternal….
Norm on Mon, 17th Jan 2011 7:06 am
Ya know, this is pretty delirious stuff. Look at this quote: “We’re going to make the power grid of the world smart and intelligent like the Internet, said Rifkin. “So that when millions and millions of us load power in our own buildings, store it in the form of hydrogen, and distribute it peer to peer to each other, much like we store digital media and distribute via the Internet.”
Oh, if you have enough internet connections, you have enough energy to heat a 4000 sq ft house to 74F in a snowstorm. That the smart grid, is gonna wipe out the dumb grid, just like Red Box got rid of Blockbuster?
Really? There’s a trend lately, of badmouthing the traditional 60 cycle electrical grid. Well, at least it works. I wouldn’t trust that ‘hydrogen on the internet’ attitude, to light up a nightlight. Spend more time touring some REAL power generation facilities, see the trainloads of coal, or the rivers of water, like in WA State on the Columbia river. It might be old school but it works, and maybe these vague ideas about a ‘smart grid’ would just go away. I dont see much of anything useful regarding a ‘smart grid’ its just gonna be one more government boondoggle, give some research grant money, to some government researchers, and maybe toss a few billion bucks to the defense contractors, receiving nothing but a few forkload pallets stacked with paper reports.
The problem remains, what to do when the fossil fuel runs out. Nobody has any good answer for that, other than chicken coops and vague ideas about windmills.
These Hydrogen pipe dreams and confusing an internet connection, with a power-grid are not any solution. I heartily disagree with Mr. Rifkin. Basic electrical physics will demonstrate that ‘connectivity’ is no substitute for authentic electrical generation.
About the only solution I have noted, which might actually work, is Thorium nuclear power, which has almost nothing to do, with Uranium nuclear power.
Andrew DeWit on Mon, 17th Jan 2011 8:38 am
Sorry Norm, reality’s already ahead of you. The Germans produce 17% of the electricity through renewables. But the Chinese are moving even faster to take over the renewable and smart-grid revolution. So is the Pentagon, as eg the Navy aims for 50% renewables by 2020. The Army is aiming for net-zero energy bases by 2030. Unlike Tea-Bagger types, the US military is worried about their country becoming a loser in the renewable revolution. I guess that’s because they look at the science rather than rely on Beck and Palin to interpret the world for them.
Norm on Tue, 18th Jan 2011 1:36 am
Oh, OK. I will go and get a 3 foot diameter windmill, attach it to my chimney where the wind turbulence is really preposterous, and wait for it to run my electric clothes dryer. This isnt about Beck and Palin, who are beneath contempt. This is about the laws of physics. Your bundle of ethernet connections will not replace a hydro-dam. The peak oil (peak energy) crisis is not about solutions, its about the lack of solutions. Windmills are a scam. They don’t run when energy needs are high (still air brings high temperatures, in summer when everybody wants to run an A/C). There are extensive scientific articles showing that windmills are good for about 5% of their hyped-nameplate-rating. Go find an article such as that and read it. Pass on the Palin the Beck on the teabaggers, they are as bad on the right, as some guy on the left telling me to run my clothes dryer from “hydrogen and an ethernet connection”.
John Hall on Thu, 22nd Sep 2016 5:31 pm
Back in 1989,Rifkin filed a lawsuit
against NASA.It was to prevent the
Atlantis shuttle from blasting off.The
reason for the lawsuit was that Atlantis’s payload was a galileo space
probe.The probe was powered by plutonium
Rifkin’s fear was that if an accident
occured on the Atlantis shuttle like what happened on the Challenger shuttle,
it would rain plutonium back to earth,
contaminating hundreds of people.Well,
the Challenger accident was a hydrogen
explosion caused by hydrogen leaking
from the fuel tank.So,if Rifkin was
worried about a hydrogen explosion
occuring on the Atlantis shuttle,then
HOW can he be going around promoting
hydrogen storage systems and assuring
people that storing hydrogen is safe?
local guy on Thu, 29th Nov 2018 6:54 am
Jeremy Rifkin is a tool of the power elites…. we are not going to SAVE this planet because….. God is about to destroy it….. you haven’t accepted Jesus ..so.. you will be going to hell…its that simpls…. you still have tome to accept Jesus.. but I know you will not… oh well… too bad.. see if I care…lol.. hell is hot and hell is forever…
I AM THE MOB on Thu, 29th Nov 2018 6:57 am
Local guy
Don’t you think burning in hell forever is a bit extreme and cruel? I mean even Hitler burning after a few thousand years would be enough..
Antius on Thu, 29th Nov 2018 8:06 am
Three almost forgotten technologies and one new technology, that when combined, could revolutionise transport.
1. The Trompe. A simple hydraulic air compressor with no moving parts. A trompe can generate compressed air with 80% efficiency. With a head height of 130m and a return chute height of 100m; a trompe could generate compressed air at 10atm (150psi). We could engineer trompes such that they have both above ground pumped storage reservoirs and an underground compressed air reservoir. Pressurised water can be transported many tens of kilometres with little loss, so the chute and the water store can be physically separated, as can compressed air reservoirs.
https://www.motherearthnews.com/renewable-energy/hydro-power-zmaz77jazbon
2. Compressed air powered trams. These were common place in the 19th century, but poor efficiency with the technology available at that time; resulted in them falling out of favour. With modern technology, compressed air can be converted into motion with efficiency of 80%.
3. Hydraulic accumulators. These store energy by using a liquid to compress a gas within a closed cylinder. They allow some 75% of braking energy to be recycled. Large vehicles in city traffic can cut energy consumption by a third or more by using this technology to store braking energy and provide acceleration.
4. Autonomous vehicles. This is challenging to achieve with cars, as the required decision tree is enormous. However, for a tram, following a single predictable route, it is likely to be much easier.
For a tram with regular stops at intervals no more than a few kilometres apart; power could be provided using a simple hydraulic accumulator, containing a sealed reservoir of gas (such as nitrogen or helium) which is compressed to <10bar using pressurised water. Pressurised water is passed through a hydraulic motor and exhausts, either into drains by the side of the track, or into saddle tanks, which drain as the vehicle is refilled at each stop. Refilling can be largely automated, as the tram position on the track has only one degree of freedom and a refilling port can be made to line up very precisely with a refilling hose.
I AM THE MOB on Thu, 29th Nov 2018 8:09 am
Omsk, Russia – The second largest city in Siberia
https://i.redd.it/v0g0wc43w7121.jpg
Russia’s people live in Urban Hell..Why their president is the worlds richest man!
I AM THE MOB on Thu, 29th Nov 2018 8:34 am
CDC says life expectancy down as more Americans die younger due to suicide and drug overdose
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-us-life-expectancy-declining-due-largely-to-drug-overdose-and-suicides/
Antius on Thu, 29th Nov 2018 10:13 am
Rifkin’s romantic idea of distributed energy is poorly conceived. The levelised cost of energy for renewables is very much scale dependant. Large utility grade solar plants and wind farms, with peak power output in the tens to hundreds of MW; can produce electric power very cheaply, albeit intermittently. Small scale rooftop solar power is several times more expensive and would never be competitive in an open market. The idea of small roof-mounted wind turbines is even less workable. For both systems, the EROI and cost effectiveness improve progressively with increasing scale. Home based energy generation makes sense in situations where there is either no alternative (i.e. off grid), or where the systems involved are very simple and/or homemade. Wood burning stoves and homemade solar heating panels are both good examples.
The idea of a two-way intergrid full of micro-generation in an urban setting, is an expensive complication that adds nothing but cost. A better solution would be some combination of large-scale renewables, grid-level storage capacity and smart appliances that can be controlled by grid managers. This can be done for example, by integrating controllers into appliances that respond to on/off signals sent through the powerlines and radiocontrol.
mark sommers on Sun, 9th Dec 2018 11:48 am
Back in the 1980’s,you couldn’t pick up a newspaper or magazine without reading about Rifkin attacking Biotechnology.He filed a ton of lawsuits against it.His main complaint was that scientists were rushing to use this technology without having a formal discussion
on it’s safety and impact on society and the
enviorment.He raised concerns and issues and warned of unforeseen consequences.But now,with his Third Industrial Revolution,Rifkin’s doing the exact opposite.He’s getting people all excited and anxious to make the switch to renewable energy.The problem here is that Rifkin’s not
raising concerns and issues with renewable
energy like he did with Biotechnology.He’s not questioning the cost and safety of hydrogen and battery storage and the toxic
materials and chemicals that are used in the
manufacturing of solar panels.
Duncan Idaho on Sun, 9th Dec 2018 12:12 pm
Rifkin, a sober look—
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit