May You Live in Interesting Times

Are you aware of just how privileged we are these days? We are sitting in the first row to witness one of the most remarkable and epochal changes mankind has ever gone through! For more than 2 millenniums (at least) the combustion of wood and fossil fuels has been the basis of our wealth. Whatever you think of – in the end all of that has become what it is because of combustion. And now – within a blink of an eye in planetary time scales – mankind is going to switch from combustion to electrical energy conversion. With this evolution, energy transformation is going to be much more efficient and much cleaner as well. The remaining carbon dioxide emissions will be captured, forming resource for precious carbonaceous materials and products in a circular carbon economy.

Did we have fun 45 years ago when we heard about the warp-drive of Starship Enterprise some decades ago – however we know that Mr. Spock’s communicator has become reality latest with the iPhone. What is going to be next? Beaming instead of transportation by car and plane? And what about my beloved classic cars? I guess combustion engines will remain an important cultural heritage and will remind us of the seemingly endless ease of power. Other than that it is going to be: “Scotty: beam me over!” into the electrical era.

Electrically yours

Matthias Mersmann