I am not prone to displays of enthusiasm; far from it. But today, I am forced to be relentlessly positive, by the quality of the material before me. There are traits by which we can immediately recognize a thoroughly good scientist or engineer:
reducing complex problems to their simple essentials- navigating from limited data to far-reaching conclusions
- developing powerful arguments using just simple maths and short words
- presenting logical conclusions, regardless of their palatability
All these traits appear in the lectures and writings of Albert Einstein, Eric Laithwaite, Richard Feynman and Michael Faraday. It is among giants such as those that Professor MacKay’s book stands, for it demonstrates them marvellously.
In the field of sustainable energy policy, reliable and objective arguments are hard to come by. The data about fossil fuel availability is contested; policy formation has to address ethical issues, where views are subjective; and policy has to be reached and implemented through a political process, where doctrine and rhetoric count for as much as fact and calculation. With so much ambiguity around, progress is not easy.
Professor MacKay cuts away these ambiguities by focussing on one simple question: can we conceivably live sustainably? In other words, if we set aside economic and political constraints, if we assume that we can develop our sustainable technologies to their physical limits, can we get enough energy to meet our minimal needs? Clearly, if the answer is yes, then the economic and political factors will come into play. But is it? I won’t spoil your reading by telling you MacKay’s answer.
The book takes the reader through a wide range of sustainable generation technologies, explaining them in simple terms, and showing how much power the UK might get from each. It breaks down our energy consumption, identifying where the energy goes to, and showing what, at best, we could do to reduce our consumption. Its final argument is about columns of simple numbers: do the consumption numbers add up to more or less than the generation numbers?
Everything is presented clearly and simply, and in units which (while they aren’t the commonplaces of science or engineering) are easy to imagine. The book is a gold-mine of data that are approximate but handy; for example, the power generation densities of wind, photovoltaic and wave sources. Every explanation has the lucidity that shows that, whether he’s right or wrong, this author’s thinking is exceptionally clear.
And its final argument, so simply and carefully presented, has a quality of inevitability. It’s changed my life: my attitude to energy management has been altered – not least because this book clearly lifts the problem out of the morass of dubious and subjective argument, into the unambiguous world of science and engineering. This book is a wonder and an inspiration: I so wish that I could have written it myself.
Sustainable Energy – without the hot air; David JC MacKay, UIT, Cambridge. ISBN 0954452933; 370pp, £19.95. Also available as free e-book here.
Tags: energy, power, sustainable
