OR, the World and the Sharing Economy

Part 3 of OR, MENA and the Sharing Economy

Process

The Economist?made the following point about solar power: As the cumulative production of a manufactured good increases, costs go down. As costs go down, demand goes up. As demand goes up, production increases-and costs go down further. This cannot go on forever; production, demand or both always become constrained.

In earlier energy transitions-from wood to coal, coal to oil or oil to gas-the efficiency of extraction grew, but it was eventually offset by the cost of finding ever more fuel.

Solar power faces no such constraint. The resources needed to produce solar cells and plant them on solar farms are silicon-rich sand, sunny places and human ingenuity, all three of which are abundant. Making cells also takes energy, but solar power is fast making that abundant, too. As for demand, it is both huge and elastic-if you make electricity cheaper, people will find uses for it. The result is that, in contrast to earlier energy sources, solar power has routinely become cheaper and will continue to do so.

My Comment:?To elaborate on and to refine The Economist’s point, the Trifecta of global energy resources includes wind as well as geothermal energy, all of which are available in various degrees in every region of the world.?

The problem is therefore not one of availability as much as it is one of distribution and this is where OR adds equity to the global energy equation.??

With the combination of platinum resources prevalent in Africa, the platinum recycled from catalytic converters:

the Trifecta of global energy endowments:

combined with German and American scientific and technological innovation:

Operations Research, regional economic integration, as well the financial and logistical facilitation of The Following Sea:

we have a winning solution for the equitable distribution of the world’s energy resources.?

Earth

Continued