Cold-ironing is when ships at berth connect via large cables to the shore-side power grid for electricity.

FORBES: Cold Ironing Comes of Age in California

Masayoshi Son, a wireless tycoon, plans to build huge solar-power stations and a new grid to connect Japanese prefectures.

ECONOMIST: Energy in Japan

New focus Sharyland Utilities built a high-voltage line to connect Texas with Mexico's power grid.

FORBES: #265 Ray Lee Hunt

Meanwhile, the energy for everything else--offices, factories, homes and data centers is 85% supplied without oil, and most of it is delivered as kilowatt-hours. (Only a vanishingly 2% of electricity is generated by oil.) Once you connect automobiles to the electric grid, you access a trillion-barrel-of-oil-equivalent energy infrastructure almost entirely fueled by domestic sources: coal, uranium, natural gas and hydro dams.

FORBES: The Automobile Shifts Gears

Expansion of the grid, which is made up of eight fiber-linked data centers at universities and research institutions around the country, will not only make the grid mind-bogglingly fast and powerful but will also enable many more outsiders to connect to it and take advantage of its resources.

FORBES: Federal Agency To Donate $150M To Grid Project