Empire Rising: Spain

To give an easier example, suppose that a person’s monthly income in the future is 5000 yuan, making the annual income 60,000 yuan. According to Spain’s current electricity cost, this person would need to pay nearly 24,000 yuan annually for electricity, which is absolutely quite exaggerated.

Although this electricity bill covers the entire family’s electricity cost, it is still a substantial expense for any common household.

Moreover, the time people spend using electric lights daily surely exceeds one hour. As electricity usage time increases, so will the cost of electricity.

Based on the current per capita income in Spain, less than one-tenth of the entire population can afford electricity, and these are mostly aristocrats, capitalists, and some higher-income middle classes.

The good news is, although only one-tenth of Spain can afford electricity, a significant portion of this one-tenth resides in the capital, Madrid.

This is also why Carlo plans to build the City of No Sleep in Madrid, because these aristocrats are utterly unburdened by spending when they consume electricity. They genuinely use it.

After the City of No Sleep became big news in all of Europe, the Spanish aristocrats also dreamed of installing large numbers of street lamps and electric lights in their castles and estates.

These light bulbs can not only provide illumination, but also showcase the power of the castle or estate owner to the outside world.

On just the second day of Christmas, dozens of aristocrats contacted Graham’s electricity company in various ways, requesting them to install circuits and set up matching street lamps and cannons in their castles and estates.

Carlo established the electricity company for the purpose of commercializing electricity; otherwise, these aristocrats would have had no way to discover the existence of the Electricity Laboratory.

In response to these aristocrats’ requests, after seeking Carlo’s approval, Graham agreed to cooperate with them.

To date, the Electricity Laboratory has not provided any income to Carlo. Although scientific research should not shy away from investment, Graham still hopes to prove his worth through generating income.

Although only a few dozen aristocrats want to install circuits and street lights in their estates and castles, these aristocrats are mostly Dukes or higher-ranking nobles.

These major nobles share a common trait, which is that their castles and estates are numerous, often requiring electrification in more than just one castle or estate.

The electricity usage of these major nobles far exceeds that of ordinary civilians; sometimes, their castle and estate street lamps remain lit all night, which represents a considerable income for the electricity company.

What Carlo did not expect is that the Spanish aristocrats are not the electricity company’s major clients; the German Government is the real major client.

No matter how wealthy the aristocrats are, their aim is merely dozens to hundreds of street lamps and a small power station dedicated to providing electricity for those street lamps.

The German Government’s requirements are different. They directly demanded ten large power plants and thousands of street lamps, clearly intending to build a City of No Sleep like Spain, signifying their commitment to investing a significant amount of money.

Of course, the German Government does not plan to invest much money in street lamps and electricity. The German ambassador to Spain proposed a request to the Spanish Government, which was to exchange Germany’s industrial technology that Spain lacks for Spain’s electricity technology.

This industrial technology includes Germany’s latest steelmaking technology, the most advanced artillery technology, and some technologies related to chemistry and medicine.

Carlo is quite interested in these technologies and is willing to exchange Spain’s existing electrical technologies for them.

The willingness to exchange is not only due to the attractiveness of the industrial technologies offered by Germany but also because the electricity technologies currently mastered by Spain are soon to be updated, making it unnecessary to cling to these technologies.

For instance, Spain’s existing electric bulb technology is still the earliest carbon filament bulbs. Graham’s Electricity Laboratory has already started researching bulbs made from other materials, and they anticipate having a new product soon.

Compared to carbon filament bulbs, the new products not only shine brighter but also have a longer lifespan. For this reason, Carlo is willing to give the current bulb technology to Germany, as these products are bound to be replaced sooner or later.

The same logic applies to generators. Unlike Graham’s ring-armature generator, the two-phase generator developed by Tesla has greater potential, with current generating power at just an initial level.

If everything Tesla reported to Carlo last time is true, Spain is about to introduce a high-power generator with a generating capacity over 50KW, naturally disregarding the pseudo-large generator with a current generating capacity of only 26.5KW.

The pace of technological update and iteration is this fast. Transitioning from ring-armature to two-phase generator will inevitably lead to a significant surge in generating power over a short period.

An increase in generating power means that higher power light bulbs and motors will have a function.

The reason electricity industry remains a hypothesis is due to the previous low power of generators, incapable of driving high-power motors.

This also caused factory owners to face bankruptcy solely from electricity costs if they used electricity as energy.

However, with the existence of high-power generators, this situation will greatly improve. Once Spain has a generator with a generating power exceeding 50KW, Spain’s electricity cost will drop to below 1 Pesseta, and civilians’ electricity costs can be controlled around 1.5 Pesseta.

Under such circumstances, more families and factories will be able to afford electricity, making the electricity industry and the era of electricity truly hopeful.

Additionally, with the exchange of industrial technologies and related materials between Germany and Spain, Spain can undoubtedly become a driving force in the Second Industrial Revolution, significantly advancing its industrial and economic development.