Sustainable Energy — without the hot air

American Journal of Physics, 2010

The quest for safe, secure and sustainable energy poses one of the most critical challenges of our age. But how much energy do we need, and can we get it all from renewable sources? David MacKay sets out to find the answer through a forensic numerical analysis of what we use and what we can produce. His conclusions starkly reveal the difficult choices that must urgently be taken and readers interested in how we will power our society in the future will find this an illuminating read. For anyone with influence on energy policy, whether in government, business or a campaign group, this book should be compulsory reading. This is a technically precise and readable account of the challenges ahead. It will be a core reference on my shelf for many years to come.

Numeracy, 2016

David MacKay. Sustainable Energy: Without the hot air. (Cambridge, England: UIT Cambridge Ltd., 2009). 384 pp. ISBN 978-0954452933 (also available as a free e-book). Physicist David MacKay transforms what has historically been a debate fraught with skepticism and hysteria into an informed conversation. He does this by providing clear, accurate quantitative information on energy production and consumption in a form that allows comparison and invites thoughtful analysis. By recalibrating power into kilowatt-hours per day per person, he makes the numbers meaningful on an individual level. He then meticulously estimates the productive capacity of various renewable energy sources, explores alternative energy solutions, and ends with an array of concrete plans to get the planet off fossil fuels for good.

Nature Energy, 2017

Geographical Locality Studies, 2016

The aim of this article originally was to discuss energy-related challenges in the United Kingdom, reflecting especially on a post-Brexit era. The topic, however, quickly evolved into a thorough energetic overview of the British Isles and it involves the entire analysation of the locally available energy resources including both non-renewables and renewables. Whilst the paper is focusing on the availability, utilisation and energetic importance of all of these local resources written in a school textbook style, it also ventures into understanding the reasons behind their decline or growing usage and how and why these have changed over the last few decades researched academically. It also attempts to compare energetic situations, such as electricity generation, to other European countries and focus-es on the importance of global cooperation , and international efforts to tackle, for example, environmental issues including climate change.

Global primary energy use is presently dominated by fossil fuels. But given the environmental resource and environmental challenges facing these fuels, alternatives must be sought. This chapter looks at each energy group—fossil fuels, nuclear energy and renewable energy—in turn. We argue that neither carbon sequestration nor geoengineering are feasible solutions for the climate effects of fossil fuels. Nuclear plays only a minor role in world energy production, and official forecasts show little change in market share. Renewable energy also faces a variety of challenges, particularly because the most promising sources, wind and solar energy, are intermittent, and will eventually require expensive energy storage. However, present fossil fuel use is very heavily subsidized, suggesting that removal of these subsidies would greatly reduce energy demand to a level renewable energy could meet.

The Future of Sustainable Energy: The Green Transigion for europe's regions. What are the obstacles, chalenges and opportunities?, 2018

With widespread environmental concerns across Europe, sustainable energy is a recurring subject in public debates and discussions. The production of renewable energy is more environmentally friendly and usually safer, and its development is key to tackling climate change and ensuring energy diversification for European nations. We already possess the capacity and the know-how to make the green energy transition technologically and economically viable. Biomass, concentrated solar power, geothermal energy, hydropower, tidal energy, wave energy and wind turbines all have huge potential for Europe. But their development remains limited. There are several socio-political factors hindering the green energy transition. First, the political situation in a country can be detrimental to the development of sustainable energy, particularly where there is a degree of instability or insecurity, or systemic problems. The insecurity caused by Brexit, for instance, results in fewer investments, making the transition to renewable energy complicated for regions like Yorkshire. A low level of awareness and public support in certain areas can also make it hard to achieve set goals and to implement renewable energy policies. In Galicia, there is a lack of public information available: civil society lacks knowledge about the benefits of renewable energy sources and subsequently, the benefits of supporting these energies. A lack of urgency is also a factor, slowing down the green energy transition even when the technology and financial resources are already available. Some governments do not express the urgency of transitioning to renewable energy, so society does not perceive it to be an urgent matter. Finally, some nations may prefer other energy sources, perhaps because of tradition or because they have been the targets of lobbying from the non-renewable energy sector. The historical and cultural importance of coal in Silesia, for example, is an obstacle to the transition towards renewable energy. Why look into sustainable energy? With widespread environmental concerns across Europe, sustainable energy is a recurring subject in public debates and discussions. The production of renewable energy is more environmentally friendly and usually safer, and its development is key to tackling climate change and ensuring energy diversification for European nations. We already possess the capacity and the know-how to make the green energy transition technologically and economically viable. Biomass, concentrated solar power, geothermal energy, hydropower, tidal energy, wave energy and wind turbines all have huge potential for Europe. But their development remains limited. How come renewable energies are still so marginally used at a European level? There are several socio-political factors hindering the green energy transition. First, the political situation in a country can be detrimental to the development of sustainable energy, particularly where there is a degree of instability or insecurity, or systemic problems. The insecurity caused by Brexit, for instance, results in fewer investments, making the transition to renewable energy complicated for regions like Yorkshire. A low level of awareness and public support in certain areas can also make it hard to achieve set goals and to implement renewable energy policies. In Galicia, there is a lack of public information available: civil society lacks knowledge about the benefits of renewable energy sources and subsequently, the benefits of supporting these energies. A lack of urgency is also a factor, slowing down the green energy transition even when the technology and financial resources are already available. Some governments do not express the urgency of transitioning to renewable energy, so society does not perceive it to be an urgent matter. Finally, some nations may prefer other energy sources, perhaps because of tradition or because they have been the targets of lobbying from the non-renewable energy sector. The historical and cultural importance of coal in Silesia, for example, is an obstacle to the transition towards renewable energy. What can be done about it? To overcome these obstacles, European nations must set ambitious policy targets and create real incentives to encourage the transition to sustainable energy. Ultimately the solution to the green transition is both social and political. It is about strengthening democracy and political systems, and making the process a truly inclusive and participatory one, allowing all voices and concerns to be heard. So that sustainable energy solutions are found at the local level and adapted to local contexts.

Centre for Alternative Technology, www. …, 2007

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2007

d.toke(at)bham.ac.uk 0044 (0)121 415 8616 Editor: Miguel Mendonç ca Researcher and Campaigner World Future Council miguel(at)@ @ worldfuturecouncil.org 0044 (0)117 377 4315 World Future Council (UK office

UK Energy Research …, 2009

Meeting global energy needs in a sustainable and environmentally responsible way is one of the grand challenges of our time. While the use of energy based on fossil fuels has enabled great advances and an increase in the standard of living, it has also brought us to the brink of an environmental catastrophe. As a society, we will need to develop strategies that integrate renewable and sustainable energy sources. We must also engage and partner with policy makers in order to articulate an energy policy that is not only scientifically and technically sound, but also one that the global society will accept. The energy challenge is the type of problem that we, as a global society, have never faced before and we need decisive scientific and political leadership to address it. We must accept the challenge and insist that our leaders articulate a global energy policy capable of meeting such a challenge. (Image created by Alice Muhlback and used with permission.) E nergy: its mere sound evokes a broad range of reactions depending on our experience, education, political affiliation , and many other factors. The word is part of our everyday lexicon in terms of the cost of energy (when we actually mean the cost of fuel), global availability of energy and the inevitable geo-political analysis, the environmental consequences of energy use, carbon footprint, global warming, emerging economies, population growth...you get the idea. Energy is part of virtually every aspect of our lives, local and global. Energy is also a subject of big numbers such as "quads" (quadrillion BTUs), Terawatt-years, and gigatons (usually of generated CO 2). As chemists, actually as citizens (better yet, as informed citizens), we need to grapple with these concepts and the magnitude of these numbers to get a realistic assessment of what they mean and how our collective behavior affects them and the future of our planet. (See Figure 1.) Energy availability, in a reliable and inexpensive way, has been key to technological advances and innovation, which, in turn, have enhanced our standard of living. One can readily identify and acknowledge that developments such as the steam engine, the incandescent lamp, the internal combustion engine and the computer, just to name a few, have transformed the way we live and interact with each other. All of them have a common thread of depending on an energy source, albeit different in each case, to accomplish a particular function. This brings us to the description of energy in terms closer to those associated with thermodynamics, mainly as the ability to do work. So the question is, how are all of these issues interrelated, and what role do we, collectively, play?