The Dawn of Micropower: “Small, local power plants offer a cheap way into (recently deregulated)

markets. Even if the power they produce is more costly

at source—which it often is—they do not suffer huge

transmission losses when sending it to consumers. On

top of that, the surplus heat they generate can be

employed for useful purposes, such as warming

buildings, whereas that from big generators located in

the middle of the countryside is usually wasted. The

result is that local power generation has now become

economically competitive.

A second reason for the rise of micropower is

environmentalism. Ever-higher emission standards have

made it unattractive to build new coal-fired plants in the

rich world. ” The demand for uninterruptible reliable power in the face of more frequent brownouts and blackouts will also help to make micropower attractive in the U.S. The Economist