Graham Daniel wrote:

> Nicola Tesla wanted to distribute power that way, he was an
> exceptional inventor but lacked understanding of basic human nature.

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While Edison wanted to continue with small (by today's standards) DC
generator plants powered by steam.  One small power plant for each city
block.  No wires over or under the streets.

The guys that finally won out, thought AC was the way to go.  They could
use Xfmr's and step up the voltage to avoid the geometrically
increasing  losses encountered when shoving more and more current
through a wire (I squared * R = P).  They could build bigger and bigger
power plants.

And maybe find "cleaner" and more efficient ways to produce mega power
in the future.  That way they could mail a bunch of power bills out once
of month and get a bunch of money back.  They could even tie all the
power plants together in a grid so there would never be any power
problems anywhere.  Computer communication seems to be a better
application of the principle.

The path was chosen over a 100 years ago.  It will be awhile before they
abandon all the power lines and the rest of the mega power plants.
There are some folks like www.homepower.com and www.nrel.gov who are
trying to figure out how to do it right.  It's a big job. They might not
get it done before it's too late.  They need help.

Don