I wanted to like this essay, especially as I read the first half. The concept of an Electrostate is an awesome one. It describes China.
However, your coverage of Germany and its (former?) manufacturing ability is seriously flawed. You completely omitted the _Atomaussteig_ and its consequence which has been Germany's abandonment of its manufacturing and engineering ability.
Kudos for covering the Petro States of the Middle East and Venezuela, albeit briefly. Entire books could be written about what happens to societies that are too dependent on fossil fuel exports. I've seen the negative consequences of a collapsing Petro state with my own eyes as the Venezuelan collapse triggered the enormous migration of 2015-6 through 2020 when COVID put a stop to most of that.
Along with a reasonably full discussion of China and its electrification, you briefly mentioned China's nuclear build along with, obviously, their almost total penetration of wind, solar, and battery manufacturing. Would have liked to read a bit more about China and nuclear manufacturing and repeatability.
Your essay will form the base of some important discussions here.
Many thanks Ruth. I guess I was focussed more on scalable fast growing manufacturing where Germany has lost its manufacturing and export lead - it’s internal energy policies I guess are another post. I don’t think you can be an electrostate unless you have a large manufacturing trade surplus. But thanks for comments as it is an open question - is there only ever one electrostate like only one google , or do we all become electrostates to a degree as we adapt and deploy. Thanks for reading and commenting
I wanted to like this essay, especially as I read the first half. The concept of an Electrostate is an awesome one. It describes China.
However, your coverage of Germany and its (former?) manufacturing ability is seriously flawed. You completely omitted the _Atomaussteig_ and its consequence which has been Germany's abandonment of its manufacturing and engineering ability.
Kudos for covering the Petro States of the Middle East and Venezuela, albeit briefly. Entire books could be written about what happens to societies that are too dependent on fossil fuel exports. I've seen the negative consequences of a collapsing Petro state with my own eyes as the Venezuelan collapse triggered the enormous migration of 2015-6 through 2020 when COVID put a stop to most of that.
Along with a reasonably full discussion of China and its electrification, you briefly mentioned China's nuclear build along with, obviously, their almost total penetration of wind, solar, and battery manufacturing. Would have liked to read a bit more about China and nuclear manufacturing and repeatability.
Your essay will form the base of some important discussions here.
Many thanks Ruth. I guess I was focussed more on scalable fast growing manufacturing where Germany has lost its manufacturing and export lead - it’s internal energy policies I guess are another post. I don’t think you can be an electrostate unless you have a large manufacturing trade surplus. But thanks for comments as it is an open question - is there only ever one electrostate like only one google , or do we all become electrostates to a degree as we adapt and deploy. Thanks for reading and commenting