Third Industrial Revolution

Five pillars of the Third Industrial Revolution

By Jeremy Rifkin

Also see his book The Zero Marginal Cost Society

The five pillars of the Third Industrial Revolution are 

1. shifting to renewable energy; 
2. transforming the building stock of every continent into green micro–power plants to collect renewable energies on-site; 
3. deploying hydrogen and other storage technologies in every building and throughout the infrastructure to store intermittent energies; 
4. using Internet technology to transform the power grid of every continent into an energy internet that acts just like the Internet (when millions of buildings are generating a small amount of renewable energy locally, on-site, they can sell surplus green electricity back to the grid and share it with their continental neighbors); and 
5. transitioning the transport fleet to electric plug-in and fuel cell vehicles that can buy and sell green electricity on a smart, continental, interactive power grid.               

Describe the future landscape based on the above.  There are three internets: energy, communications and logistics.

Every building has solar collectors and electrical energy storage. Within each building there are sensors that collect data for analysis and reporting of temperatures, humidity, specific electricity usage, and many other variables.  Every building is a micro-power plant connected to a smart micro-grid that is connected to a larger smart grid.  The energy internet connects all the nodes and the nodes all communicate with each other.

Every building has an internet connection to transmit data wirelessly to a central database for analysis and reporting of energy generation and use.  Consumers transform into producers by having a 3D printer that is their own factory, or over the internet they send a digital design to a 3D printer near them.  The communications internet enables the creation of prosumers.

Every building has electrical charging stations for electric cars and trucks.  Fuel cell vehicles have exchange locations.  Solar energy is used to charge the electric vehicles and deliver to local customers the products from prosumers.  Autonomous vehicles and smart transportation grids make transportation safer and more efficient. Global trade uses fewer ships burning fossil fuels.  Airplanes convert to non-fossil fuel engines.  Sensors provide information over the internet to create a smart transportation grid that works as a logistic internet.