What Vaclav Smil thinks about energy
Czech-Canadian scientist and policy analyst, born 9 December 1943 in Plzeň; Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Manitoba, studying energy, environment, food, population and the history of technical change.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Vaclav Smil did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
5 dated positions, 2022, in their own words. Our reading of what Vaclav Smil has said — not written or endorsed by them.
The line under a date shows how recently it was said: empty within a month, full after three years.
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Their wordsThis ennoblement is strange, given that wind projects require enormous quantities of embodied energy in the form of steel for towers, plastics for blades, and concrete for foundations.
↗Why Is Hydroelectricity So Green, and Yet Unfashionable? (IEEE Spectrum, Numbers Don’t Lie)spectrum.ieee.org 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsAnd hydro still matters more than any other form of renewable generation.
↗Why Is Hydroelectricity So Green, and Yet Unfashionable? (IEEE Spectrum, Numbers Don’t Lie)spectrum.ieee.org 2nd of 3 in this piece
- 4 weeks earlier
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Their wordsToday, no category mistake is perhaps more consequential than the all-too-common view of the global energy transition. The error is to think of the transition as the discrete, well-bounded task of replacing carbon fuels by noncarbon alternatives.
↗Taming the Climate Is Far Harder Than Getting People to the Moon (IEEE Spectrum, Numbers Don’t Lie)spectrum.ieee.org 1st of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsBut difficult and costly as those two endeavors were, they affected only small parts of the economy, their costs were relatively modest, and the lives of average citizens were hardly affected. It is just the opposite for the decarbonization of the energy supply.
↗Taming the Climate Is Far Harder Than Getting People to the Moon (IEEE Spectrum, Numbers Don’t Lie)spectrum.ieee.org 2nd of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsOf course, nobody can provide a reliable account of the eventual cost of global energy transition because we do not know the ultimate composition of the new primary energy supply.
↗Taming the Climate Is Far Harder Than Getting People to the Moon (IEEE Spectrum, Numbers Don’t Lie)spectrum.ieee.org 4th of 4 in this piece
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