Reviews for Power Electronic Control In Electrical Systems

The average rating for Power Electronic Control In Electrical Systems based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-09-09 00:00:00 James Pace McCutcheon's book provides a good backgrounder on the Quebec perspective on the James Bay Hydroelectric Project. He talks about how Robert Bourassa and the Quebec Liberals saw in the development of hydroelectric energy production the tools they would need to remain in power and secure Quebec's future. Energy production meant economic self-sufficiency, the creation of a technocratic and professional class, abundant supply for industry (especially aluminium), and cheap heating costs for the average Joe. It also meant revenue in the form of electricity sales to the utilities of eastern United States. Astride the dams and reservoirs created on Cree land, Bourassa inherited the maîtres chez nous narrative initiated by Jean Lesage in the 1960s, offering Quebeckers a pragmatic nationalism rather than the idealistic nationalism of René Levesque and the Parti Québecois. McCutcheon offers some critique of the rhetoric and rationale of Bourassa, his administrators, and his engineers. He suggests, rather convincingly, that the pursuit of reservoirs and dams as national symbols was more important than efficient energy production. Nowhere was this more clear than in its pursuit of the Great Whale River dam project. McCutcheon shows that it would have been cheaper and left Hydro Québec with more surplus electricity to offer consumers incentives to conserve energy than to build more dams, generators, and reservoirs. Thankfully the Great Whale River was left untouched. One unintended consequence of the project was that it galvanized the Crees into a resistance movement, so that as Quebec national aspirations grew, so did those of the Eeyouch. It is here where McCutcheon's book is weakest. There could have been more work done here. For example, some have criticized the Eeyouch for signing an agreement with the Quebec government. McCutcheon should have delved more deeply into this: what is the basis for the criticism? what is the Cree perspective on the agreement, with hindsight? how do they counter criticism? do they acknowledge mistakes? In this time of Wet'suwet'en, of renewed debate over land and energy, over indigenous land use and non-indigenous economic demands, it is useful to go back to these earlier cases.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-12-25 00:00:00 Richard Santos Mowrey and Rosenberg investigate 20th century innovation in America through the lenses of internal combustion engines, chemistry, and electricity/electronics. I feel like these fields are rather ad hoc, compared to the 'carrier branch technologies' of a Kondratiev Wave. They make some interesting observations about the shift from an internal corporate-level R&D to the modern state supported defense R&D system, and the role of anti-trust law, but don't really go into in rigorously. As for why America won the innovation race in the 20th century, it's because we won WW2. We didn't have our industrial base bomb, we looted German scientists post-war, we had access to overseas resources and could afford to pay for them. The interplay of military dominance, scientific expertise, and a rising middle class is very important, but only really alluded to. Not that is is a bad book, it's just not as good as the other books on my innovation shelf.