The energy infrastructure we have today is the result of thousands of years of technological development, during which the systems evolved based on what had and hadn’t been invented, and where. The Romans had everything they needed to develop a steam engine, but they didn’t. Where would humanity be today if we had almost 2,000 more years of industrialization?

The existence of legacy systems significantly affects the speed with which we design and install energy systems based on the latest technologies. Systems that have already been designed, installed and mostly or completely paid for, can be...