When the lights go out - gold & silver during a power outage

We can hardly imagine life nowadays without electricity and without the internet. But this is relatively a new phenomenon. Human beings have only had electricity in their homes for about a hundred years, and as a society we have only become dependent on electricity during the 1960s or 70s. We have come to expect the grid to be up and running at all times, but is that a realistic expectation?
A closer look at the energy sector shows that the current trend of transitioning to renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar, which are intermittent by nature, is destabilizing the grid. The more dominant they become in our energy mix, the more likely it is that we will experience blackouts or brownouts. A good example for this is the recent power outage in Spain and Portugal, which lasted for hours and revealed the fragility of this critical infrastructure.
This is not the only threat to our power supply. Another one comes from the solar flares - intense electromagnetic radiation from the sun, which can induce strong currents in electronic circuitry and "fry" them. Most of these events are quite weak and do not affect our lives substantially, but every now and again a stronger event may occur. We have records of a massive geomagnetic storm which took place in 1859, called "the Carrington event" after the the British astronomer which recorded it. That storm induced such powerful currents in telegraph lines, that they produced sparks and even set fire to some telegraph stations.
If an event of that magnitude happened today, it could severely damage our grid. The most vulnerable piece of equipment is probably the high voltage transformers which are used to step the voltage up or down. Since they are custom made, and cannot be easily replaced, a widespread damage to transformers across the world could shut the power down from a few weeks to a few months. A similar event could be the result of an EMP attack - a nuclear device which is detonated at a high altitude and produces a powerful electromagnetic pulse.
Since most of payment systems nowadays are digital, and rely on the power grid and on the internet, a prolonged power outage can paralyze our economy, and force us to revert back to barter. Join me and my friend Brian from the Mountain Bullion‬ YouTube channel, as we explain how in such a scenario, gold and silver coins will retain their value, and may become a popular medium of exchange.

Please donate: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=2U3SJ2MGGJ9KY

Music: Michael Kobrin - The Introvert
https://youtu.be/UufcCic_lQQ?si=ivX1YfmAufMmZp0x

#energy #power #grid #gold #silver