This is definitely on the cards but it's just painful to witness how slow we've progressed. Upon a deeper analysis, there is a recognition of larger-order forces that hamstring any effort that would lead to 'making more with less' and drive the prices down to zero. In monetary-market economy, artificial scarcity needs to be maintained in order to keep the system going, i.e. maintain profits and GDP growth. There is an enormous potential out there to flood the world with electricity at the marginal costs of zero but this is not considered from the perspective of market efficiency. Think about it in terms of market efficiency vs. technical efficiency. They are defined by an inverse relationship, where increased technical efficiency results in lower market efficiency. In other words, inefficiency and a lack of sustainability are prerequisites for the market system to operate.
I think that in industrialized countries, such as Germany, the use of energy is very wasteful anyway. But large consumers do not pay for the damage they cause. I think countries that had no access to energy due to poverty could be very careless with it (without limits), which not only damages the grid but can also cause huge ecological damage.
This is definitely on the cards but it's just painful to witness how slow we've progressed. Upon a deeper analysis, there is a recognition of larger-order forces that hamstring any effort that would lead to 'making more with less' and drive the prices down to zero. In monetary-market economy, artificial scarcity needs to be maintained in order to keep the system going, i.e. maintain profits and GDP growth. There is an enormous potential out there to flood the world with electricity at the marginal costs of zero but this is not considered from the perspective of market efficiency. Think about it in terms of market efficiency vs. technical efficiency. They are defined by an inverse relationship, where increased technical efficiency results in lower market efficiency. In other words, inefficiency and a lack of sustainability are prerequisites for the market system to operate.
I think that in industrialized countries, such as Germany, the use of energy is very wasteful anyway. But large consumers do not pay for the damage they cause. I think countries that had no access to energy due to poverty could be very careless with it (without limits), which not only damages the grid but can also cause huge ecological damage.