Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
matured during the twentieth century is the large-scale
fossil-fueled generation of electricity.
his electric lighting system and was no more critical to its
effective functioning than the Edison Jumbo generator, the
Edison main and feeder, or the parallel-distribution sys-
tems. (Hughes 1983, 18-21)
8.5 Fossil-Fueled Electricity: Generation and
Transmission
The advent of electricity represents an unprecedented
technical revolution (Smil 2005a). Previous inventions
filled specific needs and could be readily inserted into
existing systems. In the energy industry Newcomen's en-
gine displaced horse-powered ones; in manufacturing,
Watt's invention severed the dependence on water-
wheels; and Fourneyron's turbine prevented the demise
of water power by allowing for better efficiencies and
capacities of water-powered machinery. Only the subse-
quent diffusion of these innovations, their greater relia-
bility, lower cost, and higher performance led to a
gradual overall transformation of systems into which
they were introduced. Not so with electricity. Here the
whole system had to be put in place before the idea be-
came viable. The current had to be generated on a scale
sufficiently large to allow for transmission and distribu-
tion to numerous, distant consumers, who first had to ac-
quire electricity-powered converters that were superior to
existing devices such as oil lamps and gas lights for illumi-
nation or steam engine-powered shaft-and-belt transmis-
sion in factories. One man's vision was central to this
endeavor:
There were other inventors of light bulbs and large
generators, but only Thomas Edison had the vision of a
complete system as well as the determination and organi-
zational talent to make the whole work. The rapidity
with which he and his many dedicated co-workers put
the system into place is astonishing (Israel 1998). On
October 21, 1879, after months of repeated failures, a
cotton sewing thread was carefully carbonized, inserted
into a glass globe evacuated by suction pump, and con-
nected to an electricity supply from a dynamo. In Edi-
son's words, the light bulb ''burned like an evening
star.'' Less than three years later, on January 12, 1882,
the first power plant built by Edison Electric Light Com-
pany of London at Holborn Viaduct started to generate
electricity. The first U.S. station followed in September
4, 1882. Located in New York's financial district at 257
Pearl Street, it lit 5,000 lamps by the end of 1882. The
diffusion of electricity generation was accelerated by
the victory of alternating current (AC) over direct cur-
rent (DC) (in what became known as the battle of the
systems) as well as by rapid development of reliable trans-
formers and displacement of steam engines by steam
turbines.
Edison, a staunch defender of direct current, was on
the losing side of the transmission battle (as was Lord
Kelvin). Because electric power is the product of current
(amperes, A) and voltage (volts, V), and because voltage
equals current multiplied by resistance (ohms, W), power
is the product of A
2
W. This means that transmitting the
same amount of power with 100 times higher voltage
Edison was a holistic conceptualizer and determined
solver of the problems associated with the growth of
systems. . . . Edison's genius lay in his ability to direct a
process involving problem identification, solution as
idea, research and development, and introduction into
use. . . . Edison is most widely known for his invention of
the incandescent lamp, but it was only one component in
