Another problem with the solar solution that Dawson cites is the current common reality of the technology. "As customers with solar panels diminish their demand for power provided by the utility by generating their own power, he writes, "they also cut their electric bills; the utilities then have to charge higher rates to non-solar customers in order to cover their costs-plus returns." This creates unnecessary friction between those with solar who appear to be lowering their bills at the expense of non-solar residents -- but not because of the technology, but because, Dawson says, utilities make money, like any other capitalist venture, by demand for product. Solar reduces demand. Salvation can get ugly.
Dawson, along with many other Greens, envisions
a grid made up of small, less polluting, relatively self-contained systems. In a world full of nasty surprises, such systems can be hived off and continue to operate when other portions of the grid go down, preventing a total and catastrophic collapse.
Dawson doesn't fully explore how such smaller grids would work in a world of 7 billion people needing electricity. One imagines Venus Project communities, or futuristic model cities, or other bracketed social spheres. Dawson reports that way back when the national grid was building its connective tissue, rural communities, especially farmers, had to come up with their own solutions, and developed community-owned grids separate from the IOUs and other public utilities. Scale is an issue though.
He also indicates that there are projects on local scale that are in keeping with modern lifestyles. He writes that
new digital technologies are knitting small-scale producers and consumers together into what are sometimes called virtual power plants, allowing households to trade energy with one another when and as they need it, without the involvement of any central clearinghouse along the lines of the traditional utility.
Dawson's ideas are pretty good, but it's hard to see the impetus for getting there any time soon.
In the final end, as the Bard from Duluth would say, dramatic and almost-immediate political action is required to buy time to nut out a blueprint that 7 billion+ people can live by. Dawson recognizes this, and sees no way around the nationalization of electricity and building an Energy Commons -- indeed, the need to end greed and adopt democratic socialism as a global panacea. Voluntarily converting to this new system in America might be a problem. During the presidential 'debate' that many of us witnessed with unbelieving ears and eyes, it was astonishing to hear Trump refer to Joe Biden as being in league with Lefties. Lots of people see it that way. Nationalization of anything, let alone the juice, seems far-fetched.
Dawson seems to understand this hurdle. He brings to the fore as a model of possibility what the Germans are up to. This is a very delicate proposition in one way. While any number of elite Americans have expressed admiration for German 'know-how' when it comes to solutions (check out the Netflix series, Hunters, starring Al Pacino), Euro visions aren't necessarily going to be available to us, due to our difference in values and lifestyles.
Nevertheless, Dawson builds a case that is at least worth considering for inspiration from the Europeans, if nothing else. In his chapter on Public Power, Dawson suggests that
Germany provides a particularly inspiring example of successful efforts to gain popular control over the energy commons, whether through small energy collectives or through re-municipalization of energy provision in cities like Hamburg and Berlin.
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