
Why you should read the book Before the Lights Go Out - evo_9
http://arstechnica.com/science/reviews/2012/04/why-you-should-read-the-book-before-the-lights-go-out.ars
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reitzensteinm
I haven't read the book, but if you're interested in that kind of thing, also
check out Without Hot Air:

<http://www.withouthotair.com/>

Which is a beautifully straight forward book, written by a physicist who
deeply understands the field but is writing for the general public. It tallies
up methods of energy production, and breaks down current consumption, as well
as providing multiple plans for generating that much energy.

My only complaint is that it largely ignores energy efficiency gains (check
out some Amory Lovins lectures for instance[1]) - though the Jevon's paradox
may suggest that's the right thing to do.

[1] <http://youtu.be/O5txQlEI7bc>

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guscost
"This sets the tone for the whole book: let’s skip the reasons and just focus
on the solutions and hard choices that need to be made."

vs.

"I won't be buying this book if the opening premise is that the US electric
grid is in crisis. This Ars article surely didn't give any justification for
that. Must be sensationalism for the purpose of selling books. I've been an
engineer in the US electric business for 20 years. It's not in crisis."

Hmm, who to believe?

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jamesaguilar
Any book that advocates policy changes without justifying them ("skip the
reasons") is not something I personally am interested in buying.

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dwc
Is this such a book? Or is it discussing implementation issues? There's a very
big difference. I read books and articles talking about approaches and likely
pitfalls. Of course I also read things that are advocacy. Some are both.

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jamesaguilar
It's possible the book is just discussing implementation issues. But if it's
implementation issues for something that has not been convincingly established
to be a problem, it seems like putting the cart before the horse. Why discuss
hard choices that need to be made before establishing need? What is the point
of such a work?

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tedivm
The point was that there are so many reasons. Besides climate change a number
of issues were brought up such as energy security, conservation, and
nationalism. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of books that discuss these
reasons. Should this book be forced to repeat the same things that have been
said over and over again just for the sake of doing it?

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ekianjo
Frankly, if the book indeed focuses on electricity generation only, it misses
out on a big chunk of the problem. Electricity is NOT going to be a major
issue. We could go on with non-CO2 producing nuclear power plants for another
100 000 years with the amount of fissible material on Earth. The big issue is
going to be "how can we replace gas/fuel" ? If I remember correctly, 70% of
the oil is the US is used to power cars only. We can have natural gas
combusting engines for a while, as a replacement, but what's after? Bio-Fuels
won't work: you have to put more energy to produce them than what you get out
of it. It has a negative yield. Wind power is not transportable. There's no
way you can make a normal car move with solar panels. How about electric cars
? Well, it's going to be massively expensive, unpractical to recharge, and
there's nothing indicating you can effectively use it to power heavy trucks
needed for goods transportation.

Of course, the issue will not come up suddenly. It's all going to be
progressive, and when the petrol prices rise to very high levels and stay
there, there will be running innovation to provide good alternatives. I'm not
too worried. Market will adapt.

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prodigal_erik
If we weren't constrained by how few reactors we've built, we'd probably store
electrical energy as fuel using <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process>
to create liquid ammonia from hydrogen (electrolyzed water) and nitrogen
(distilled air). Batteries may eventually become competitive in recharge rate
and useful lifetime, though.

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EliRivers
Because it's really hard to read the book in the dark.

Ba-dum TISH.

