Was Edison Right All Along? The Case for Direct Current

You’re likely familiar with the “war of the currents” that gripped America in the 1880's – when inventors Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse (with a teensy bit of help from some chap named Tesla) tussled over how best to harness electricity. Whilst the former favoured a system called “direct current” (DC), the latter championed “alternating current” (AC) and - *spoiler alert* - AC won.    

But maybe Westinghouse’s AC didn’t win the war, after all – just the first battle.

As of 2022, almost a billion people worldwide still don’t have access to electricity, something the UN aims to fix by 2030. But at the same time, we’re living through a climate emergency caused by our reliance on non-renewable energy.  So how can we expand power consumption AND limit its impact on the environment? As it turns out, DC could help with both…