Empire Rising: Spain

Carlo is highly encouraging of novel ideas like installing light bulbs in car and carriage compartments.

Continuous exploration and hypothesis are the only ways to drive technological progress; if we remain stagnant in a specific industry and field, technology will only mark time in place.

To support the development of the electricity sector and demonstrate more of its roles and values, Carlo invested a significant amount of research funding into the Royal Academy of Sciences to explore more uses of electricity, aiming to make its applications vibrant and diverse.

Imagination is crucial for scientific research. It is thanks to imagination that scientists of this era have discovered one novel technology and technique after another, thus advancing the era’s technological progress, indirectly creating the prosperous technological society of later generations.

If it were not for the groundwork laid by scientists of this era, there would not be such rapid development of science in later generations. What Carlo can do is provide these scientists with more support, enabling them to unleash their imagination and create achievements far above historical levels.

With Carlo’s substantial financial investment, the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Electricity Laboratory have also established many electricity-related scientific research projects, each assisted by industry-relevant experts.

Carlo also paid attention to the research projects established by the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Electricity Laboratory; overall, these scientists have quite wild ideas.

Although electricity currently only shows its role in illumination, projects have been initiated in the Electricity Laboratory and the Royal Academy of Sciences, including but not limited to electric locomotives, compact high-power electric motors and generators, and more efficient energy-storage batteries.

The electric train is temporarily unfeasible, as the current electricity cannot support the transport of large objects. However, smaller, higher-power generators and electric motors are theoretically achievable in a short time.

Including more efficient batteries, as the electrical industry advances, it is necessary to develop a battery that stores more energy and reduces energy waste.

Currently, there is no ability for large-scale storage of electricity, which means that excess electricity from power plants will be wasted.

As power plants in Spain become more numerous and various types of generators more powerful, the issue of electricity waste will become increasingly severe.

If there were an effective way to store electricity, power plants could provide electricity to factories and residential areas even when not operational.

The impact of power outages might not be significant in this era, but in the later era when electricity permeates every household, the impact will be substantial.

Fortunately, electricity currently has only been popularized in Madrid and Barcelona, where it is fervently embraced, temporarily avoiding concerns over electricity waste.

Carlo proposed an idea to Graham and Tesla: storing electric energy as other forms of energy and releasing it when needed.

This is actually quite a simple system. It involves storing low-lying water at higher elevations using electricity, effectively storing electrical energy.

When more power is needed, simply releasing the water from high altitude to lower levels generates power through water flow, which drives generators to produce new electricity.

This type of energy storage is among the common methods in later generations, with evident benefits.

Firstly, this electricity storage method is non-polluting, and large reservoirs can ensure surrounding areas have water supplies during droughts.

The downside is the need to construct large pumping and generating equipment, and selecting reservoir sites is crucial to avoid potential disasters during water release.

Fortunately, these issues are all manageable for Spain. Carlo also tasked Tesla with designing a more complete hydropower system to aid Spain in achieving electricity storage and generation.

Unexpectedly for Carlo, the Electricity Laboratory soon brought the latest progress in these research projects.

Carlo initially thought that simpler compact high-power generators and electric motors were not achieved; instead, modified electric locomotive technology and tram development had been substantively researched.

So-called trams actually operate as trains powered by electricity on city tracks.

In fact, they are not trains, just a passenger cabin similar to train carriages, plus a traction device providing power.

Such urban rail transit tools were born as early as 1807, naturally in the British Empire.

Back then, what pulled train carriages were actually one or several horses. In other words, such urban rail transit tools were essentially modified horse-drawn carriages.

Carriages can run freely on roads, while such rail transit tools can move only on fixed city tracks.

Compared to carriages, trams have some advantages. For instance, when tracks are fixed, horses can run freely without worrying about hitting pedestrians.

The downside is that these trams are slower, as the carriage’s weight is already heavy, needing to carry both people and goods.

The tram invented by the Electricity Laboratory replaces horses with electricity as power, using several large electric motors for power output.