David MacKay
Physicist. Professor at the University of Cambridge from 1995 to his death in 2016, Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change from 2009 to 2014. Wrote Sustainable Energy — without the hot air (2008), which he published free at withouthotair.com.
David MacKay did not write this page.
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Their wordsA more realistic mantra is: if everyone does a little, we’ll achieve only a little.
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Their wordsSo to fix climate change, we need to sort out a new way of getting energy. The climate problem is mostly an energy problem.
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Their wordsif we covered the windiest 10% of the country with windmills (delivering 2 W/m2 ), we would be able to generate 20 kWh/d per person, which is half of the power used by driving an average fossil-fuel car 50 km per day.
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Our reading
Britain's onshore wind resource, though large, is not as large as the country's energy consumption.
Their wordsBritain’s onshore wind energy resource may be “huge,” but it’s evidently not as huge as our huge consumption.
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Their wordsplanes are already almost as energy-efficient as they could possibly be. Planes unavoidably have to use energy for two reasons: they have to throw air down in order to stay up, and they need energy to overcome air resistance. No redesign of a plane is going to radically improve its efficiency.
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Our reading
Photovoltaic panels will keep getting cheaper and less energy-intensive to manufacture over time.
Their wordsI am sure that photovoltaic panels will become ever cheaper; I’m also sure that solar panels will become ever less energy-intensive to manufacture, so their energy yield ratio will improve.
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Their wordsI think one conclusion is clear: biofuels can’t add up – at least, not in countries like Britain, and not as a replacement for all transport fuels.
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Their wordsObsessively switching off the phone-charger is like bailing the Titanic with a teaspoon.
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Their wordsWhile wave power may be useful for small communities on remote islands, I suspect it can’t play a significant role in the solution to Britain’s sustainable energy problem.
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Our reading
Britain cannot live on its own renewables under its current lifestyle and consumption levels.
Their wordsBut realistically, I don’t think Britain can live on its own renewables – at least not the way we currently live.
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Their wordsPeople love renewable energy, unless it is bigger than a figleaf. If the British are good at one thing, it’s saying “no.”
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Their wordsI think hydrogen is a hyped-up bandwagon. I’ll be delighted to be proved wrong, but I don’t see how hydrogen is going to help us with our energy problems.
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Their wordsmy prediction is that after all the “zeroemissions” trumpeting is over, we’ll find that hydrogen cars use just as much energy as the average fossil car of today.
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Our reading
Switching to electric cars is already a good idea, even before the electricity supply is greened.
Their wordsSo I conclude that switching to electric cars is already a good idea, even before we green our electricity supply.
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Their wordsHeat pumps are superior in efficiency to condensing boilers, even if the heat pumps are powered by electricity from a power station burning natural gas.
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Our reading
The price of nuclear power is dominated by construction and decommissioning costs, not fuel costs.
Their wordsnuclear power’s price is dominated by the cost of power-station construction and decommissioning, not by the cost of the fuel.
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Our reading
Nuclear power is dangerous, but not uniquely so among energy sources like coal, oil, and wind.
Their wordsNuclear power is not infinitely dangerous. It’s just dangerous, much as coal mines, petrol repositories, fossil-fuel burning and wind turbines are dangerous.
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Their wordsI feel nuclear waste is only a minor worry, compared with all the other forms of waste we are inflicting on future generations.
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Their wordsFusion power is speculative and experimental. I think it is reckless to assume that the fusion problem will be cracked, but I’m happy to estimate how much power fusion could deliver, if the problem is cracked.
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Their wordsIf we ramp up electric vehicles at the same time as ramping up wind power, roughly 3000 new vehicles for every 3 MW wind turbine, and if we ensure that the charging systems for the vehicles are smart, this synergy would go a long way to solving the problem of wind fluctuations.
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Their wordsTrying to reduce emissions from oil and gas is of secondary importance because supplies of both oil and gas are expected to decline over the next 50 years.
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Their wordsSo, while markets may play a role, it’s silly to say “let the market handle it all.” Surely we need to talk about legislation, regulations, and taxes.
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solarenergyEuropenuclear power
Their wordsJust like Britain, Europe can’t live on its own renewables. So if the aim is to get off fossil fuels, Europe needs nuclear power, or solar power in other people’s deserts (as discussed on p179), or both.
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Their wordsSolar thermal water heaters are a no-brainer. They will work almost everywhere in the world.
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Their wordsIf anyone proposes using trees to undo climate change, they need to realise that country-sized facilities are required. I don’t see how it could ever work.
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Their wordsI therefore suggest air-source heat pumps are the best heating choice for most people.
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Their wordsFor most materials, the embodied energy per unit weight is greater than or equal to 10 kWh per kg – the same as the energy per unit weight of fossil fuels.
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