Electricity just happens. Flip a switch, and the lights turn on. The system is reliable enough and invisible enough that it's easy to spend your entire life not knowing how it works, even though you use it every day. But in an age of limited resources and climate change, ignoring our electric infrastructure is a luxury we can no longer afford. The good news: Infrastructure is fascinating. Maggie Koerth-Baker explains how our flawed and surprisingly precarious electric system evolved, how it controls what we can and can't do to solve our energy crisis today, and what we can learn about the future of energy by studying its past. 

Bio: Maggie Koerth-Baker is a journalist and the science editor at BoingBoing.net, one of the most-read blogs in the United States. Before the Lights Go Out, her book about the future of energy in the US will be published in April by Wiley and Sons. Her work has appeared in magazines such as New Scientist and Discover, and on such websites as National Geographic News and Scientific American. 

Learning Objectives:

-To be able to understand how architectural energy objectives fit into a broader picture. 

-To learn about how the electric grid system works, something that will help architects as they try to design buildings with integrated alternative generation.

-To be able to better know what promises about energy objectives they can make to clients and what isn't currently possible. 

-To get a historical perspective on energy systems that will help them better navigate today's rapidly changing energy technology.