The World in 2030

224 The World in 2030
and is a far different economic reality than that in
colonial regimes of the past, in which local peoples
were made subservient to and dependent on powerful
forces from the outside. 431
Essentially, Rifkin is arguing for nothing less than a complete
dismantling of centralised fossil-fuel-powered energy
supplies and their replacement with many small regional or
local hydrogen fuel-cell power generators powered locally,
something which Professor I.M. Dharmadasa also believes
to be the correct model for the future (although in his view
direct solar power will play a much larger role in the energy
mix). Professor Dharmadasa points out that only 1.23 volts
of DC electrical current is necessary to release hydrogen by
electrolysis (1.5 volts to allow for system losses) and these
voltages are available today from existing solar photovoltaic
sources. 432 He points out that large-scale production of H 2
is
already possible and it is only the lack of political will that is
holding back a switch to a hydrogen-powered economy.
These ideas about hydrogen as a fuel are more powerful
than they may at first seem. Replacing state-delivered
or utility-delivered power with locally or domesticallygenerated
power also shifts political power. No longer
would it be possible for a government to artificially boost
a nation’s economy by subsidising electricity prices and no
longer would it be possible for governments to restrain an
economy by applying price hikes. George Monbiot is also in
favour of moving from a centralised energy supply system
to a distributed energy generation model (‘an ‘internet of
energy’ as he calls it) and it is clear that energy autonomy for
a household or locality would dramatically alter the balance