Donna sent me a link to her TEDx Talk. Here’s a little bit about her from the introduction:

“Donna Morton, First Power, Serial Social Entrepreneur; CEO, co-founder of First Power, with a mission to put clean energy, jobs and equity in the hands of first nations and native communities globally. Recently, Donna was elected an Unreasonable Institute fellow for building one of the worlds most “unreasonable” start ups. First Power is profitable and highly impactful. She is also an Ashoka fellow for her work with the Centre for Integral Economics (CIE), both BC based. CIE promotes market-based solutions to social and environmental sustainability and put tax shifting and carbon taxes on the map across Canada.”

I love the whole idea of the Unreasonable Institute. I mean, where has being reasonable ever gotten us? Being reasonable equates to stifling our misgivings about business as usual, putting up and shutting up. And, as Donna Morton explains in her TEDx talk, that’s only led us to ecological and cultural crisis — a world “on fire.”

Watch Donna Morton’s TEDx talk.

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Well, there’s a shock. In her post on Earth2Tech.com, Josie Garthwaite writes about the challenge of convincing consumers that smart grid technologies are actually in their best interests. Here’s an excerpt:

Making the smart grid’s most basic elements — two-way communication between utilities and energy users, advanced control systems and smart devices — appealing to consumers could be key to its success. So how can smart grid backers make the investment look more like a boon, and less like a boondoggle for those on the other side of the meter?

For many utilities, adding information technology and two-way controls to electronic devices and appliances represents a potential gold mine of efficiency and a workaround for building expensive new power plants. As Farber put it, “A button is as close to a dispatchable power plant that you can imagine.”

For consumers, however, the benefits of the smart grid have proven to be less obvious, despite promises that it will offer more insight and control over their energy use (and spending). “It turns out customers don’t actually want utilities to turn off their appliances,” said Farber, referring to the two-way control technology that would allow a utility to cut power use when demand strains supply.

If that translates to my espresso machine sputtering to a halt when I need it most… I’m not sure I could be convinced.