In the twentieth century, electricity unleashed an industrial revolution that changed our collective lives. After lighting up our cities, running our high-speed trains, and modernising agriculture, it is now paving the way for robots and remotely guiding the hands of surgeons or the trajectories of missiles.
This book reviews this chain of events, questioning the rationale for establishing the electricity industry in Europe as a monopoly. The authors show that electricity is not a commodity like any other, which explains the failure of attempts to deregulate the electricity sector in the nineties.
Given today’s economy coupled with looming environmental challenges, the so-called “Europe of Energy” is nowhere to be seen. How can we give it a second wind? Such is the issue that runs through the book, which is intended both for decision-makers and ordinary consumers.