Perfect power : how the microgrid revolution will unleash cleaner, greener, and more abundant energy / Robert Galvin and Kurt Yeager ; with Jay Stuller.

From the Publisher: What's the solution to the world's growing energy problem? PERFECT POWER. Electric usage is rising. Fuel costs are rocketing. Blackouts are happening more frequently. Why? Because our electrical power system-built on a vast network of resources including nuclear energy, natural gas, water, and coal-has become woefully outdated, increasingly expensive, and dangerously fragile. We need to change the current system, and we need to do it now. Written by business visionary and former Motorola chairman Robert Galvin, Perfect Power shows us how to create a "perfect" system that can deliver power where needed, at an astonishing reliability standard of 99.9999999 percent. By super-charging the "Six Sigma" concepts that Galvin developed as the founder and CEO at Motorola, we can: meet the energy reliability and quality needs of the Digital Age; generate new goods and services that create jobs, empower consumers, and lower energy cost; eliminate wasteful spending on our electrical infrastructure that can be used for peak power needs; facilitate local, regional, and, ultimately, national energy independence; fundamentally reduce the impact of energy on the environment; and invest in the microgrid revolution. Energy providers and policy makers will reinvent today's centralized power systems and integrate them with new, efficient "microgrids." Investors and entrepreneurs will spot tomorrow's hottest technologies. Consumers will demand change from "the powers that be." And environmentalists will take advantage of cleaner, greener energy sources available. We have the power to fulfill our energy needs, fix our old systems, forge ahead with new ideas, and fuel our dreams. It's Perfect Power.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-257) and index.

Introduction: the electric imperative -- Guiding the path to perfect power -- The heat is on -- The grid -- Electrifying the world -- The Edison paradox -- The path to perfect power -- Smarter than the average building and car -- Rewiring Siegel Hall for perfect power -- The blank canvas of Mesa Del Sol -- Changing the rules of the game, honorably -- Consumers at the controls -- Creating a green-collar revolution: new companies and new jobs -- Coda.