Sustainable Energy - without the hot air: 2

For those who are looking for brief, summarised research into climate change and all related matters, this is not the book for you. It is a medium format book with 12pt text and very detailed. It is a scholarly text which will satisfy the most demanding readers. There are very few areas into which it does not look closely relating to the on-going climate change debate and, as the sub-title suggests, it a serious, scientific document. I am sure every reader will learn from it. Highly recommended. PS Out of curiosity I put the title in ChatGTP, a facility Professor MacKay, did not have at time of writing. I could not have put it better myself. 😳 “A phrase often associated with the book written by David MacKay. It is a comprehensive guide that explores realistic solutions for achieving sustainable energy without relying on misleading or emotionally charged rhetoric. The book emphasises the importance of data-driven discussions in addressing energy challenges.” PS I forgot to mention that (as a Scot interested in sustainability) I bought a used copy 😇😂 from an online bookshop listed in Amazon*. My text is covered in what look like a student’s or a passionate readers highlighting and annotations. Next to the current consumption per person 125kWh/d is MacKay’s prediction of our best 18kWh/d per person. In the margin next to a large asterisk is “Merde!” [my translation). * While Amazon is great, we also need to support bookshops.

I cannot praise this book highly enough. With admirable clarity, honesty and lack of bias, David MacKay sets out the facts surrounding energy consumption and renewable energy generation. He explains, with the help of clear and not overly complicated mathematics, how much energy our different activities consume. He also explains, in a similar way, the capacity of different sustainable and non-carbon energy sources to meet that consumption. He enables the reader to understand the facts and make comparisons and informed moral choices. The result is quite sobering reading. For example, after reading and understanding this book you will realise that at present rates of individual consumption (flying abroad, driving around a lot, buying lots of consumer goods and turning up the thermostat) there is no way we can meet our energy needs from renewables without also including nuclear power in the mix and/or completely industrialising our landscape (assuming we want to stop using fossil fuels). However MacKay is NOT a doom-and-gloom merchant. The facts speak for themselves. While 'climate change denial' is not logically justifiable after reading this book, MacKay's view is: okay we've got a problem, so let's look at the facts and see what can be done. But let's not obfuscate and cover it up with platitudes like "we've got a huge amount of wind in Britain" ' - as he shows, 'huge' is relative, and it turns out that our consumption is a whole lot huger. The book is beautifully designed and illustrated with clear diagrams expressing all the information you need to understand this topic; all of it useful, and some of it alarming and/or surprising. It should be compulsory reading for students of Year 11 upwards, and should be tax deductable for the rest of us! Having said that, it is also in the public domain so you don't have to buy the book; you can find it online and download the PDF.

How are we going to switch to sustainable energy so as to avert the negative effects of climate change? This is what the late Cambridge physicist and Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change, David MacKay sets out to do in 'Sustainable Energy - without the hot air'. He does this by looking at the physical potential and limits of sustainable alternatives to powering present consumption patterns and desires, with the aid of simplifying assumptions and largely back-of-the-envelope calculations about each possible energy source and the main things that demand energy, such as transport, heating and electricity. The advantage of this transparent approach is that, as he explicitly states, readers can understand the methods behind such calculations and use these methods to do their own calculations. However, if you're happy to trust his workings and are only interested in his results, the disadvantage of course is that you have to wade through pages of calculations to find what you're after. Even so, it is worth noting his assumptions and the caveats to his workings, not least the one that the politics and economics of the energy options he explores are not considered. The TLDR summary of the book is that MacKay thinks that we can maintain present consumption levels sustainably, at least scientifically speaking. That is, there is sufficient energy from sustainable sources (defined as renewable energy or non-renewable energy sources that could be sustained for 1000 years at consumption rates growing annually by today's growth rates) globally to power a fleet of electric vehicles and sufficient technological advances to store and redirect this energy as appropriate. A key finding, indeed, is that the UK is unlikely to have enough sustainable energy to meet its needs, and so will have to import energy from other countries. I think the strengths of this book thus is its wide coverage of options and energy conundrums, transparent workings, debunking of various myths and indeed important warnings to the reader to be mindful of the 'hot air' and agendas behind the claims of some purported environmentalists. I definitely walked away feeling much better informed about the energy problems and possible sustainable solutions. The book is stuffed with interesting trivia that may be new to many readers e.g. Britain's original coalfields were comparable to Saudi Arabia's oil fields, and as a result, Britain is the country responsible for the second highest contribution to the CO2 levels in the atmosphere, historically speaking. Likewise, the finding that jetliners are four times more efficient in transporting people than ocean liners is interesting, even if sea-going freight is far more efficient than freight delivered by air. The main weakness in my view however is the inconsistent consideration of the economic or political implications of MacKay's proposals. Most of the time, MacKay ignores these considerations. For example, he says that there is sufficient sunshine in the Middle East and North Africa to meet the 2006 (when the book was written) energy needs of Europe and North Africa. But is such a setup politically and economically desirable? The concentration of oil in the Middle East has surely been a factor in the many conflicts there (and nothing emits CO2 like a war), while as of April 2017 much of North Africa is politically unstable. The political and economic options for constructing and protecting sufficient solar farms in the area are certainly not straightforward or cheap. Sometimes however, he does consider the political aspects of energy choices, notably in the five energy plans for Britain that he proposes, which illustrate how different energy choices could satisfy different desires (e.g. varying levels of domestic wind farms, nuclear power stations and imported energy). He also casually suggests that lowering consumption levels and hence demand for energy would be "unsellable", which is highly debatable in my opinion. Inevitably for a book written in 2006, its advice has dated somewhat: cheating car companies has meant that diesel has not been the 'green' solution hoped for, with an air pollution crisis in many UK cities instead. And of course, no-one in 2006 was predicting Brexit, which will occupy the UK civil service fully for the next few years at least, sapping the time available to make choices about sustainable energy. Indeed, the fact that surveys show many of those who voted for Brexit are also sceptical about climate change may result in the UK government putting off difficult decisions about energy choices, but we'll see. Nevertheless, for a purely scientific overview of the pros, cons and potential of meeting present and future demands for energy from a range of sustainable options, as well as plenty of interesting facts, historical and more recent, 'Sustainable Energy - without the hot air' is very much worth a read.

How should Britain handle climate change and limited fossil fuel sources? If you want a book that is demanding upon your powers of concentration and mathematics as you lie in bed at night, but brimming , on the one hand with a focus on the important and key energy issues, yet on the other hand airing lots of innovative ideas, then this is the book to keep you awake. Accepting that fossil fuels are finite, security of energy supplies are important and that fossil fuels change the climate David MacKay works on the assumption that we need renewables. But that we need energy numbers that add up and policies that add up. He is frustrated by the flood of ineffective ideas for solving the energy crisis, the lack of meaningful numbers and the inundation of crazy innumerate codswallop. He castigates the excuse used to justify ineffective policies " every little helps" with his reply " if everyone does a little we will only achieve a little". The book then proceeds to evaluate the balance sheet of power usage and sources using kilowatt hours per day per person so he can make comparison between countries and regions. He looks at the major causes of energy consumption - cars, planes, transport, domestic heating and cooling, farming, lighting , gadgets and stuff. And he looks at the major serious renewable sources of energy generation - solar, onshore wind , offshore wind, biomass, hydroelectricity, tide, wave and nuclear. With sweeping generalisations about their physical potential - not their cost - he quantifies their potential importance. This allows a discussion of the merits of alternatives. Without looking at the economics, he draws conclusions about the real, quantifiable, measurable potential of each source and what he calls "the last thing we should look at " , carbon capture. He draws conclusions about where the effort should be focussed and advances alternative energy plans for Britain to get away from its current fossil fuel addiction. His sole recommendation is "Make sure your policies include a plan that adds up". As Mackay says the heated debate on energy policy is fundamentally about numbers, but actual numbers are rarely mentioned. All it needs now is integrating Mackay's quantification of the balance sheet ignoring fossil fuel sources with the reality of an energy policy based predominantly on fossil fuels and costing it and we have the basis for an informed discussion.

Refreshing to see a book that isn't too afraid of putting numbers behind the arguments in a simple way that anyone with GCSE level maths can easily understand - and we certainly have plenty of A* passes at GCSE and beyond if the exam board statistics are to be believed. So there is no excuse for apologising about a simple bit of maths and science that puts some rational arguments behind the vast array of political and bandwagon 'solutions' to our environmental problems. Wind energy might work for the UK if there were storage systems available. Growing crops for transport fuel is the least efficient way of using our limited land resources. Can aeroplane travel be made much more efficient as the 3rd runway proponents would have us believe - the physics doesn't offer much hope and aero engineers nearly bankrupted themselves putting carbon fibre into jet engines all those years ago; no new engineering materials are on the horizon. A thoroughly good read with plenty of easy to digest numbers and worked examples that offer a good foundation against which to judge the politicians and lobby group knee-jerk solutions. We are left with the need for radical lifestyle changes but in a hopeful way - this is certianly not a doomsday book. If you passed GCSE maths, you'll enjoy the revision material, if you're studying A level physics this book should be on the syllabus. And how do we get politicians to read it and think about it's sober arguments before coming out with yet another unworkable but appealling solution to the pressing problems of oil shortages and environmental pollution?

There are important issues with Prof. David JC Mackay's book. It is certainly written pleasantly, and quantified information is provided clearly. HOWEVER, in practice it is likely that most readers will go away from the book insufficiently questioning the data provided therein, and start to base decisions, procurements, even policies upon it's data and/or conclusions, and not least this may in part be due to people falling for pleasant presentation, and/or work where it appears that someone else has done all the work and so one can then in-effect close one's mind and go to sleep. This may be a serious error. The presentation is most akin to that of the prevailing supermarket-esque economic system, whereby 'energy' values are evaluated in a manner that is akin to, "Is is cheap and easy at the point of sale/use, at the point of the consumer, at the point of flicking on the switch? Can I power what I want this way?" What the presentation barely does at all is consider the entirety of the Energy expenditures and costs of the ENTIRE supply and production lines and complete lifecycles and maintenance and repairs and decommissioning of the equipments and homes and offices and vehicles and ships and satellites and gadgets etc.. concerned and that are actually utilised and manufactured and powered in or for people's places of work and home and elsewhere - i.e. humanity's entire materialistic lifestyle energy equations. Additionally, the book does not consider the very real energy cost and expenditure of powering yet more future creations using such techniques, and so supporting the same, because providing x number of Wind Turbines now might meet energy desires now, but it is opening Pandora's box, it is widening a motorway so that even more cars and vehicles will be fit through in the future to lay swathes over yet more land and ecosystems. Most important, data is specific and unique to a certain SET. If one changed the length of a game of soccer to 30 minutes, instead of 90 mins, then who would be the champions, the result, the score, the data, might be different. If, as this book does, one forgets the entirety but provides consumer-focussed data, and then if a reader unquestioningly runs away with that data as if it were valid, and uses it to procure, to produce policy, etc... then the equation, and its data, as far as Nature is concerned, will be 'incorrect' and not balanced... Please read the book, but I personally would strongly urge not trusting the numbers beyond the book's chosen SET remit, which is not remotely the ENTIRE reality. So very much depends upon this! Best Wishes and Good Luck!

This is an amazing piece of public education. Congratulations to the funders (Gatsby Foundation) for sponsoring an objective setting-out of the implications of a low carbon future. David Mackay lays out all of his assumptions, and explains the physics and the maths of our current consumption and the options for reducing it, for sourcing non-carbon-based energy and the challenges ahead. And he develops alternative scenarios with their implications. All in very clear terms. Climate-change sceptics should read this, not to be converted, but to understand that these challenges need to be faced even if our fossil fuel habits had no impact on climate. And renewable energy enthusiasts should read it to understand the practical limits of the various low-carbon options. Nuclear opponents should read it to realize the costs of avoiding the risks they reject. My own conclusion from reading it: we need to diversify our options, including renewables energy, nuclear, possibly some carbon capture and storage, and huge efficiency improvements. We don't yet have the policies in place to make this happen. This book will help to pave the way for public understanding, and hopefully some enlightened policies.

It's rare to find a book that is so full of good, scientific facts and well-researched figures, and yet is so enjoyable to read. Well-worth reading from beginning to end, it's also fun to dip into. The prose is light-hearted and chatty - by far the best way to get across a serious message - and the book is beautifully produced, with interesting charts, page layouts and illustrations - even some of the captions make for amusing reading. You can feel the author's sense of humour leaking through all over the place. I think we should be lobbying the BBC to make this into a documentary series. It would also be a great basis for A-level physics teaching. There aren't many books which fit both roles so well. A splendid gift for anyone you know who is interested in realistic, rather than emotional, ways to deal with today's energy challenges. Recommended.

Uno dei pochi libri su quest’argomento che val la pena di leggere.

Ce livre (en anglais) présente de façon très complète, et remarquablement simple et claire le problème de la consommation d'énergie auquel l'espèce humaine va être confrontée à court terme. Le problème est quantitatif (si on ne chiffre pas sérieusement le problème, on passe son temps à dire tout et n'importe quoi, ce que quantité d'autres livres font abondamment). Il faut donc aligner des chiffres. Mais l'auteur réussit l'exploit de les présenter de façon extraordinairement simple et concrète en les ramenant à une seule personne (vous !), de sorte qu'on la sensation de gérer son propre budget. Toutes les explications sont compréhensibles par tout le monde et il s'agit entre autre d'un ouvrage de vulgarisation remarquable (les détails un peu techniques sont systématiquement mis en appendices, qu'on peut tout à fait omettre mais qui sont accessibles à toute personne se souvenant de ses études scientifiques dans le secondaire). En bref une lecture indispensable pour toute personne voulant vraiment savoir quelle est la situation. Seul défaut: l'auteur examine surtout, pour être très concret, le cas du Royaume Uni, mais la situation de la France est peu différente.

Does what is says on the cover, a clear explanation of how much energy we use, how much renewables might be able to provide and the options for getting off fossil fuels. The figures concentrate on the UK (the writer was a highly regarded professor at Cambridge University) and are a few years old now, so some of the latest figures for wind and solar production and costs are not there, but overall an invaluable book for anyone wanting to get to grips with the facts in this post-truth age.

Schade eigentlich, dass dieses Buch hier bisher keine Rezension erfahren hat. Vielleicht liegt es daran, dass es das Buch (mit ein paar drucktechnischen Einbußen) auch online gibt; es muss lediglich nach 'sustainable energy' oder 'david mackay' gesucht werden. Dennoch gehört dieses Werk als gedrucktes Paperback in jeden Bücherschrank. Und sei es nur als Nachschlagewerk. Es räumt auf mit diversen (fast liebgewonnenen) Vorurteilen in der Klimadebatte; z.B. die 'schlimme' (aber irrelevante) Insektenatmung, der 'tolle' (aber untaugliche) Hybrid-PKW etc. pp. Der Autor David MacKay ist seit letztem Jahr (2009) Berater der britischen Regierung. Insofern hat das Buch einen leichten Touch aus britischer Perspektive; aber nur ganz leicht. Die Aufbereitung von Daten (z.B. der Pro-Kopf-Anteil klimarelevanter Emissionen weltweit, auch historisch kumulativ!) in überzeugenden Grafiken ist beispielhaft und unerreicht! Wie wahrhaftig dreckschleudernd sehen da auf einmal USA oder Deutschland im Vergleich mit den angeblichen Dreckschleudern China oder Indien aus...

It's best book ever to give you an idea of how to effectively use available resources specifically energy.