By way of Sustainablog, comes word of a report by Greenpeace, U.K’ Decentalizing power: An Energy Revolution for the 21st Century.

More than half the electricity generated today is used just to get the power through the wires; it is an enormously inefficient system. Greenpeace proposes a decentralised energy system that would see everyday buildings playing host to devices such as solar panels, small wind turbines and combined heat and power boilers, which generate electricity as well as providing heat and hot water. The electricity created would be used directly by the house or workplace, and the surplus would be fed into a local network. This electricity would then be locally distributed, avoiding the significant loss that occurs when electricity is transported long distances.

As Greenpeace points out, decentralizing energy would also democratize energy, providing real opportunities for local political leadership on climate change, and curbing the influence of the centralized industry’s powerful vested interests. By enabling local action and empowering individuals and communities as producers, decentralisation has the potential to bring about a massive cultural change in our attitude to and use of energy.

A Green future is not only possible and within our reach, but it may be the only way to survive declining supplies of hydrocarbons.

But the corporate mentality, that knows nothing but huge, centralized solutions will be difficult to overcome. Already they are spending billions attempting to consruct the “hydrogen economy” even though huge, inordinantly difficult technical problems remain unsolved. An efficient, community based economy will have to be built from the ground up.

Austin is a blue dot in a sea of red. First they signed the pledge by U.S. cities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, now they have launched their own campain to get cities across the country to promote plug in hybrid technology.

According to an increasing number of policy makers, industry analysts, and environmental groups, there is a growing awareness of a Perfect Storm of conditions that may change how we drive and what we drive.

This perfect storm of strategic, economic, and environmental conditions compels us to find ways, within a relatively short period of time, to dramatically reduce oil consumption.

Plug in hybrids combine a bigger battery with existing hybrid technology so that the cars can run 40 or 50 miles on the battery alone and then switch to the hybrid engine. Recharging the battery would cost an equivilent of 70-80 cents a gallon. With studies showing 78 percent of Americans living within 20 miles of their jobs, the potential for gasoline savings is enormous.

The U.S. now consumes one quarter of all the world’s oil, and more than half of the oil we used is burned up in internal combustion engines. This is a tremendous waste that must be cut to survive tighter oil markeets.

Austin Energy has pledged $1 million to help local businesses, governments and citizens purchase an initial round of plug ins. They hope to spread the campaign to the 50 largest cities in the country.

Baltimore is on their list; but it seems to me that Montgomery County is an equally good target. There are now more jobs in the Rockville-Bethedsa corridor than in Baltimore, and there is already a high tech corridor running along 270 (including a BP Solar building.)

I plan on sending this literature to the Montgomery County Council to see if there is any interest. Also, I’d like to add a petition drive to my other petitioning activities.

With oil prices rising and no end in sight, I think this could be an important issue for the MCGP to follow up on.