In effect, Cragside was both house and power station, with the entire estate, from the machinery in the outdoor workshops to the lights in the ostentatious drawing room, run by mechanical hydraulics and the world’s first hydroelectricity. In London and New York coal-fired power stations had just come online, creating the prototype of today’s power grid, with large, centralised fossil-fuel-powered producers serving distributed consumers. Since 1975, the cost of solar panels has fallen by an extraordinary 99.8%, from USD 115 to USD 0.27 per Watt1. With costs continuing to fall, the future looks bleak for fossil-fuel power stations. Read also: Storage technologies: paving the way for a renewable energy future

Source: Forbes May 12, 2023 21:30 UTC