Energise!: A Future for Energy Innovation (Beautiful Special) [Paperback]

From wind farms and electric cars to recycled nappies and sustainable tourism, energy has become a mainstream topic of conversation. Almost everyone now has a view on some aspect of how we power our lives. We really do face some fascinating issues, particularly the pressing need to decide which technologies and methods we should back to guarantee our future resources, and our future. Unfortunately, the dominant public narrative is stuck around issues of personal consumption, not least time-wasting schemes such as calculating your personal carbon footprint. Government agencies and environmental groups seem to favour moralising about our behaviour rather than developing breakthrough thinking on the fundamental issue - supply.

Energise! examines why this situation has developed, how we can look at energy issues from a different perspective, and why we should spend more time thinking about how to transcend climate change than how man-made it is. Astute, thoroughly researched and delightfully clear, this book manages to offer a measured argument for a radical change of emphasis. Or as the authors write; ''If the world could be more thoughtful about energy supply, we could all afford to be thoughtless about our personal use of energy.''

Whatever your views on our energy future, this is a highly enjoyable, thoughtful and thought-provoking analysis.

Energise! starts from a fundamentally different premise from virtually every other book on energy or climate change. For James Woudhuysen, a professor of innovation, and Joe Kaplinsky, a science writer, any discussion of energy should be based on human needs:

"Our starting point ... is the uniqueness of human beings. To us, humans will always want to do more than simply survive. They will always want more home comforts, better-lit streets and greater mobility. But to get all this - now and in the future - they will need more cheap energy. In energy matters, therefore, a far bigger and more urgent challenge than global warming lies in thoughtfully supplying the world's population and organisations."

This simple premise leads to radically different conclusions from the conventional writings on the subject. In contrast, the mainstream approach tends to start with a discussion of the threshold above which greenhouse gas emissions become difficult to handle.

For Energise! the priority is to work out how to generate vastly greater amounts of cheap energy so the world economy can develop as fast as possible. In general terms the authors favour a mixture of energy sources including biofuels, fossil fuels, nuclear energy and renewables. But in each case their emphasis is on generating as much energy as possible with the best technology available.

For example, the authors acknowledge that first generation biofuels, such as the ethanol produced from American maize, have limitations. But they argue that, with the required investment in technology, second and third generation biofuels could become an important energy source.

Perhaps the most surprising element of the book is its attitude to renewables or what the authors prefer to call "astronomicals". For Woudhuysen and Kaplinsky the key to using such energy sources as geothermal, hydroelectric, solar and wind is to do so on a vast scale. Since such energy tends to be diffuse, it is best collected and harnessed in massive engineering projects.

This is in contrast to greens who tend to prefer energy projects that are small scale and limited. Perhaps the most striking example is hydroelectric power - where greens often favour small-scale dams but condemn large-scale ones. For Energise!: "Environmentalists don't really see wind, solar, water and geothermal as massive sources of energy. Their `renewables' rather, are meant to renew the world morally - by leading it away from industrialism and modernity" (p360).

The emphasis on the need for a huge increase in energy supply also rules out approaches based on conservation or energy efficiency. Conservation is rejected simply because the world needs more energy rather than less. Energy efficiency is fine in principle but there are physical limits to achieving it and in any case using energy more efficiently generally means using more rather than less.

Those who ­promote energy efficiency often seem unaware that substantial improvements since the 1970s have coincided with greater energy use overall.

In relation to climate change the authors reject the sceptic view by recognising it is happening and that human activity is an important cause. But they also repudiate the mainstream response of curbing emissions and promoting energy conservation with a fundamentally different approach. In broad terms this means heavy investment in developing new and improved sources of energy supply rather than curbing demand.

On runaway climate change - change that is irreversible and dangerous - the authors argue that it cannot be ruled out theoretically but it is highly unlikely. Energise! says that climate alarmists exaggerate the magnitude and significance of the uncertainty around climate sensitivity.

Woudhuysen and Kaplinsky point out that mainstream scientific opinion does not see the build-up of a given level of greenhouse gases as likely to have anywhere near as dramatic effect as many environmentalists suggest. In effect alarmists present an extreme worst-case scenario as if it is the mainstream view.

Rather than panic about climate change the authors suggest a programme of transformation to deal with the problem. In essence this means investing heavily in what they call "a gale of new-generation technologies" (p466). Measures would include new-generation nuclear energy including fusion, a new carbon infrastructure, astronomical use of clean energy, radically improved building infrastructure and increased mechanisation of agriculture.

The main barrier to achieving the goal of massive increases in energy supply is not technical - although there are technological challenges to be overcome - but social. There is a pervasive culture of caution which militates against bold, imaginative solutions to insufficient energy supply.

In addition, a widespread antipathy to consumption means that the idea of producing more energy is often a source of anxiety if not outright hostility. Indeed, Energise! regards this topic as so important that chapter two is devoted to examining the views of commentators who are hostile to, or at least haughty towards, consumption. These range from thinkers such as Thorstein Veblen, who coined the term "conspicuous consumption", to John Maynard Keynes and John Kenneth Galbraith.

The only weaknesses of the book are minor and technical. It has no index or bibliography - although there are extensive references.

Overall, Energise! is a huge achievement. From its simple starting point of the need for a massive increase in cheap energy it builds a strong case with authority and flair. It should be read by anyone who wants to understand one of the key debates of our age.

ENERGISE! A FUTURE FOR ENERGY INNOVATION
by James Woudhuysen & Joe Kaplinsky

This is a book that every aspiring sustainability consultant and architect with green leanings should be forced to read. Government Ministers, MPs, Local Authority officials and everyone with an interest in the environment should also read it because it takes a cold, hard look at the planet's energy needs and solutions without the usual hype.

James Woudhuysen and Joe Kaplinsky both have strong scientific backgrounds and have carried out extensive research into the subject of energy. They dispel many common myths and challenge accepted views.

Unlike most environmental analysts, they celebrate the use of energy for all the benefits it brings to civilisation. It is unusual to read, for instance, that energy consumers have no need to feel guilty - "you're not a needy greedy energy addict and you shouldn't worry about your carbon footprint." The consistent message that Energise offers the reader is that "consuming more energy isn't a problem if the right level of supply can be arranged".

At first, I thought this might have been commissioned as part of a propaganda machine to justify George W Bush's excesses but I soon realized that, actually, it takes a refreshingly pragmatic, scientific view of the use of energy in our society.

According to the authors "this book offers a radically new perspective on energy and climate change. It covers not just the technology, economics, science and politics of these two issues, but also their sociology: how people perceive energy and how they organise it. The main focus is on humanity's need for a lot more energy and a lot more innovation in energy supply."

It contains some extremely disparaging comment on the ever burgeoning Green Movement and the Government's slightly impotent attempts to enforce energy savings on us as individuals. And it is here that I have some quibbles because I still see a real need for restraint. In fact, I have to confess to reading this book on a trip to Dubai where I witnessed the full effects of unbridled, full-on, consumerism, which was enough to make me look favourably on Gordon Brown's more puritanical approach to life in the UK.

I can see no sense in wasting energy, however easy it is to produce, and the current global recession has served as a prescient reminder that the world could use a little restraint.

I was reminded of James Lovelock's statement that "for millennia, humankind has exploited the earth without counting the cost. Now, as the world warms and weather patterns dramatically change, the earth is beginning to fight back." In his book, `The Revenge of Gaia', James Lovelock, one of the great environmental thinkers of our time, argues that although global warming is now inevitable, we are not too late to save human civilization, and this approach seems to be agreed by James Woudhuysen and Joe Kaplinsky.

In chapter 3, they deal with the subject of climate change in some detail but maintain that "Mankind shouldn't lose its nerve. It has some years yet to develop a more rational energy supply." Whilst this is somewhat reassuring, I can't help thinking that I would rather play safe than gamble with our future existence on this planet.

I was therefore interested to read their approach to the various energy supply options. Not surprisingly, perhaps, they come down firmly in favour of nuclear power as a means of supplying clean low-carbon energy, again in agreement with James Lovelock who comes to the same conclusion. I note that James Woudhuysen carried out post graduate research in the political economy of nuclear energy and it is clear in this book that he has a strong grasp of the subject. He deals carefully with popular concerns about the risks attached to the production of nuclear power, the storage of spent fuels and the frightening accidents such as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Of course, these are cause for great concern but lessons have been learned and there would appear to be no other energy solution in the short term that will provide us with the power we need without damaging our climate.

We know that we cannot continue to rely so heavily on fossil fuels which generate CO2 and these issues are clearly illustrated in the chapter entitled "A New Carbon Infrastructure". It is impressive that this is right up to date with the inclusion of Barack Obama's recent policy statements including the famous one on oil in which he says "We cannot sustain a future powered by a fuel that is rapidly disappearing. Not when we purchase $700 million worth of oil every single day from some of the world's most unstable and hostile nations......"

Energise is also extremely informative on the popular issue of renewables, under their preferred title "astronomicals". As with the rest of the book, this subject has been given clear, scientific and rational evaluation which brings out some interesting points. I like the quote that "Renewable energy is limited only by humanity's political will and engineering talent to capture it." And this continues with "wind, solar, water and geothermal sources of energy have one thing in common: they're about capturing continuous flows of energy over the earth as an astronomical entity, not mining it as a stock of geological fuels!".

I was extremely interested in reading the in-depth analysis of these clean energy sources and pleased to see that they have the potential to provide us with such a high proportion of our energy needs.

In summary, I think this book provides a thorough review of the planet's energy requirements and the likely solutions for the next 50 years which will allay climate change. It's a tough read but you will feel better for having set aside the time to consider this vitally important information.

Chris Wilkinson
Wilkinson Eyre Architects Ltd
9 February 2009