In fact you don't have to go nano or wait for other esoteric and untested technologies for renewable technologies to undermine the current energy paradigms.
I do agree, and also thanks for your paper.
Rooftop solar is now spreading rapidly due to the continuing declines in solar panel prices, enabling households to generate their own electricity. This creates a situation where they will be sending their surplus to the grid some of the time, and getting their additional supply from the grid at some other times. Thus, they will be engaging in peering arrangements with the grid itself, which are actually P2P transactions. At some point when P2P transactions over the grid exceed the amount that central power plants provide to non-generating customers, the grid will start taking on more and more the nature of a public commons. Then we should see the same kinds of debates between privatized infrastructures and the commons that have arisen elsewhere.
Thinking of what happened to Internet, the Grid which is designed, built and governed by more and more centralizing and authoritarian state-corporate partnerships does not seem too promising from outside, but I need to read more about it.
I also discussed in the paper how microhydro and microwind, by getting smaller instead of larger, and if this can result in one or a few orders of magnitude price reductions, as happened with integrated circuits, can put them in production levels where the economics of increasing returns to scale is activated.
Indeed you do mention and evaluate existing technologies (known to you?) realistically.
By the way, I've written a separate paper analyzing the P2P transactions between the grid and solar owners under net metering. Those who are interested may google "pseudo-net-metering double-charges customers". This may be very relevant to countries where net metering is implemented and where utilities insist on charging lower than retail price, which results in double-charging. I use very simple math in the paper to show exactly where the double-charging happens.
Personally I am interested and will look into that paper too.
Requiring net metering is such an important policy enabler for microsolar, that utilities are now campaigning very hard against it.
A lot of exciting things, such as battery storage costs starting on a downhill trend, are happening in the renewables area. I urge people to look more closely into this sector, if you haven't yet.
Some of these are discussed in my book Crossing Over: The Energy Transition to Renewable Electricity, published last year but also freely available online (just google the title).
The sector will also need in the near future new paradigms and business models to properly appropriate the new values created by the new types of P2P energy exchanges that are emerging.
Would you know or be able to say anything about the wireless electricity distribution technology? would it make any bigger impact then charging batteries with but sharing power within communities? Best, Orsan