The Brave New Future of Electricity | Episode 40 | Everything is Everything

Our power sector is stuck in an old world. Climate change and the needs of future generations demand that we shift from our traditional sources of power. But how?

Welcome to Episode 40 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Ajay takes us through the history of the power sector, the problems it faces, the remarkable progess in renewables, and the way forward. (Spoiler alert: the price system!) Amit expresses his enthusiasm for nuclear power, and busts the myths around it. Plug in now!

Oh, and Amit's newsletter is furiously active again, so do read and subscribe at https://indiauncut.substack.com/

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
00:00 Packaging
00:13 Introduction: Enter the Plug Point
02:31 Chapter 1: The Old World of Power
09:27 Chapter 2: The Opportunity and the Problem
21:17 Chapter 3: Prices to the Rescue!
42:02 Chapter 4: The Miracle of Nuclear Power
52:49 Chapter 5: The Role of Foreign Policy
1:05:28 Chapter 6: Other Unintuitive Uses of the Price System
1:11:33 Chapter 7: Ajay's recco
1:12:35 Chapter 8: Amit's Recco

USEFUL RESOURCES:
1. Amit on Twitter:   / amitvarma  
2. Ajay on Twitter:   / ajay_shah  
3. The Seen and the Unseen -- Amit's audio podcast: https://seenunseen.in/
(Also on all podcast apps. And YouTube, though less than 1% of listens come from here:    / @theseenandtheunseen  )
4. Ajay's organisation, XKDR Forum, on YouTube:    / @xkdr  
5. In Service of the Republic -- Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah: https://amzn.eu/d/hwGILb3
6. The Art of Clear Writing -- Amit's writing course: https://indiauncut.com/clear-writing/
7. The India Uncut Newsletter -- Amit's newsletter at https://indiauncut.substack.com/
8. Solving the intermittency of renewables -- Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah: https://www.mayin.org/ajayshah/MEDIA/...
9. Climate Change and Our Power Sector — Episode 278 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah):    • Ep 278: Climate Change and Our Power ...  
10. That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen — Frédéric Bastiat: http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html
11. This is Water -- David Foster Wallace: https://fs.blog/david-foster-wallace-...
12. Son of Bosey -- Anand Ramachandran: https://www.sonofbosey.com/
13. Offshore wind in Tamil Nadu: from potential to reality -- Akshay Jaitly, Charmi Mehta, Renuka Sane & Ajay Shah: https://tinyurl.com/2yu6dxkt
14. Nuclear Power Can Save the World -- Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist & Steven Pinker: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/op...
15. A new dawn for nuclear energy? -- Ajay Shah: https://www.mayin.org/ajayshah/MEDIA/...
16. Making Policy Fun with Khyati Pathak and Friends -- Episode 374 (w Khyati Pathan, Anupam Manur and Pranay Kotasthane):    • Ep 374: Making Policy Fun with Khyati...  
17. Anupam Manur's piece on the Bangalore water crisis: https://tinyurl.com/3dzp79vc
18. The Great Redistribution — Amit Varma: https://indiauncut.com/the-great-redi...
19. Pranay Kotasthane's post on Plasma and organ sales: https://tinyurl.com/3hw4ves6
20. Sell the Tiger to Save It — Barun Mitra: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/op...
21. What's Wrong With Indian Agriculture? -- Episode 18 of Everything is Everything:    • What's Wrong With Indian Agriculture?...  
22. India’s Agriculture Crisis — Episode 140 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra & Kumar Anand):    • Ep. 140: India's Agriculture Crisis  
23. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah):    • Ep 211: The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills  
24. The State of Our Farmers — Episode 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil, in Hindi):    • Ep. 86: The State of Our Farmers  
25. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan):    • Ep 185: Fixing Indian Education  
26: Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra):    • Ep. 77: Education in India  
27. We Love Vaccines! We Love Freedom! -- Episode 27 of Everything is Everything:    • We Love Vaccines! We Love Freedom!  |...  
28. World Energy Outlook 2023: https://www.iea.org/reports/world-ene...
29. Midnight in Chernobyl -- Adam Higginbotham: https://amzn.in/d/8rjC0Yb

Produced by Amit Varma
Shot by Vaishnav Vyas and Nomsita MS Haritashya:   / vaishnav.vyas  
Edited by Nomsita MS Haritashya:   / nomsitaharitashya  
Thanks to Gaurav Chintamani for helping with sound:   / gaurav_chintamani  
Chapter images & additional illustrations by Simahina:   / i_am_simahina