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by Richard Heinberg (Author), David Fridley (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
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Editorial Reviews
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"Without a doubt the most sensible book...on the prospects and promise of renewable energy.", Energy blog
"The future of renewable energy is obscured by ignorance, noise, ideology, and all sorts of misconceptions —from both cornucopians and catastrophists. Our Renewable Future describes the reality: the transition is possible, but it won’t be easy."-- Ugo Bardi, University of Florence and The Club of Rome
About the Author
Richard Heinberg is a Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute and is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost educators about the need to transition away from fossil fuels. He has authored twelve books, including The Party’s Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies and Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels, and scores of essays and articles that have appeared in such journals as Nature, The American Prospect, The Pacific Standard, Public Policy Research, Quarterly Review, The Ecologist, Resurgence, The Futurist, European Business Review, Earth Island Journal, Yes!, and The Sun.
David Fridley has been a staff scientist at the Energy Analysis Program at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California since 1995. He is also Deputy Group Leader of Lawrence Berkeley’s China Energy Group, which collaborates with China on end-user energy efficiency, government energy management programs, and energy policy research. Fridley has written and spoken extensively on the energy and ecological limits of biofuels and serves as Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Fellow at Post Carbon Institute.
Product details
File Size: 24635 KB
Print Length: 244 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1610917790
Publisher: Island Press (June 2, 2016)
Publication Date: June 9, 2016
Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B01GD4XKA8
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Screen Reader: Supported
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #705,225 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#124 in Physics of Energy
#124 in Oil & Energy Industry (Kindle Store)
#229 in Alternative & Renewable Energy
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fossil fuels renewable energy heinberg and fridley climate change richard heinberg current energy solar and wind energy future renewables technical authors growth electricity important simply society storage sustainable infrastructure level
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K. F. Laux
5.0 out of 5 stars Wind, solar etc are all good and necessary, but...we need to learn to live with less energyReviewed in the United States on July 7, 2016
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A very carefully researched examination of what a complete transformation to renewable energy is likely to entail. The authors caution that we will need to emphasize energy efficiency and learn to do with less, and that we will need to avoid a number of potential pitfalls on the way to a 100% sustainable society.
The book begins by walking the reader through the basics of energy and power, and explains such concepts as EROEI and embodied energy, before turning to the different characteristics of various energy sources and such problems with renewable energy as intermittency and the need for storage, demand management, capacity redundancy and the like.
Yes, it is somewhat technical, but not overwhelmingly so, and the authors persuasively argue what some other writers such as Ozzie Zehner have been saying: we will not simply be able to swap out fossil fuels for wind and solar power. In particular, we are going to have to learn to live with substantially less energy; we are going to have to remake not only our systems for producing energy, but also for using it--in agriculture, transportation, industry, ...everything.
Along the way, the authors discuss issues that I have not seen mentioned much in the literature, but that are obviously important. Such as the need, ultimately, to manufacture sustainable energy equipment (wind turbines, solar cells, etc.) using only sustainable energy--electricity--and what this is likely to entail. The fact that our road infrastructure itself is very heavily dependent on fossil fuels, and for this and other reasons, electric cars may be a red herring where sustainability is concerned.
They are careful in stating their conclusions, but these conclusions are supported by meticulously developed and footnoted arguments. And their conclusions are riveting: if we put off the transition to renewable energy, "we eventually end up with catastrophic climate change and NO viable energy system."
I think this is may be the most important book on climate change and energy issues to appear this year. Very highly recommended.
13 people found this helpful
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Loren F. Stokes
5.0 out of 5 stars This is the best book yet from Richard HeinbergReviewed in the United States on July 27, 2016
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This is, by far, the best book yet from Richard Heinberg. It is also the most technical in content, consistent with his co-author’s background. But please don’t let that deter you from reading this book. It is quite up to date with many references from 2015.
The first two parts of this book, understanding energy and our current energy use, followed by renewable energy in a largely fossil fuel-free world, is a much more detailed report than attempted in a short book I wrote in 2014. For example, a rapid scale up of wind turbines and solar panels for renewable electricity would actually increase fossil fuel use, as materials used in wind and solar manufacturing rely on fossil fuels with no near-term alternatives.
The third part of this book is extremely important and often overlooked: preparing for a renewable energy future. The world will likely need to use less energy per capita going forward. This has profound implications for capitalism in the western world. Economic growth is not sustainable. The connection between a high level of energy use and wealth will have to change. This is inevitable with a finite supply of remaining fossil fuels. This transition will happen even if we don’t embrace it, so planning for it is of paramount importance.
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AutonomeusTop Contributor: Classic Rock
5.0 out of 5 stars A uniquely important, sober analysis of the energy transitionReviewed in the United States on August 1, 2017
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This book is unique. Richard Heinberg is a well-known advocate of a lower energy future beyond fossil fuels. Here he teams with David Fridley, a scientist with the Energy Analysis Program of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Both are associated with the Post Carbon Institute.
"Our Renewable Future" is not one of the many books simply advocating for clean/renewable energy. Nor is it one of the many books simply presenting the technical possibilities of various sorts of energy. Rather it is a sober analysis of the possibility of a transition to 100% clean/renewable energy, based on the assumption of the necessity of such a transition.
The book begins with some basic physics, and an overview of our current energy sources and uses. The first topic is renewable electricity. The challenges of intermittency and storage are taken seriously. Next comes transportation, and the challenge of substituting electricity for fossil fuels. The authors do not shy away from concluding that mobility will be reduced in the clean/renewable energy future.
The most difficult challenge of substitution will be for industrial processes requiring high heat. This is a topic rarely addressed, and the authors do not provide any easy answers.
The major point we are left with after this expert, realistic assessment is that we are going to have to reduce energy use. It will not be possible to simply substitute solar and wind energy for burning fossil fuels and go on with the same sort of society. What many people don't seem to realize is that *this is not a choice.* If we do not intelligently construct the energy transition, we will run up against catastrophic climate change as well as the limits to resources of all sorts, and global human society will be reduced to a lower level of energy use *involuntarily,* with much pain and suffering as well as destruction of the planetary ecosystem.
"Our Renewable Energy" is highly recommended for all those who want or need to stay informed on the issue at a level not requiring mathematics or engineering expertise. Heinberg and Fridley offer us state-of-the-art guidance as of 2017 for a rapid energy transition. What are we waiting for?
5 people found this helpful
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Winfried Berner
5.0 out of 5 stars Die Energiewende in aller Konsequenz durchdachtReviewed in Germany on December 10, 2016
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Ein wertvolles und ermutigendes Buch, das erstmals die Komplexität eines vollständigen Umstiegs auf erneuerbare Energien zu durchdringen versucht und sowohl gangbare Wege aufzeigt als auch Probleme analysiert, ohne sie zu verharmlosen oder dramatisie
Hinweise, Untersuchungen und Analysen, dass wir mit unserem Energieverbrauch nicht so weitermachen können wie bisher, weil es sonst im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes ein böses Ende nehmen wird, gab es in den letzten Jahrzehnten mehr als genug. Bereits 1972 machten Dennis und Donnella Meadows und Kollegen auf die "Limits to Growth" aufmerksam, schon davor erschienen erste Studien zum Thema Peak Oil, und in den letzten Jahren wurden die Warnungen vor einem menschengemachten Klimawandel immer lauter.
An zusätzlichen Warnungen besteht kein Bedarf mehr: Es ist alles gesagt. Woran es hingegen mangelt, sind konkrete Überlegungen und Pläne, wie ein Umbau unserer Gesellschaft(en) auf eine vollständige Versorgung mit erneuerbaren Energien gelingen könne, um einen ungeordneten Übergang – sprich: einen Kollaps – zu vermeiden. Insofern ist "Our Renewable Future" ein ausgesprochen optimistisches Buch: Nicht nur, weil seine Autoren einen vollständigen Übergang auf erneuerbare Energien für machbar halten, sondern auch, weil sie sich trotz des vorherrschenden Weiter-so-Stimmung überhaupt die Mühe machen, ihn detailliert zu untersuchen.
Richard Heinberg und David Fridley legen mit diesem Buch – meines Wissens als Erste – sehr kluge und sorgfältige Überlegungen vor, was die Voraussetzungen für einen vollständigen Übergang auf erneuerbare Energien sind und welche Schwierigkeiten / Herausforderungen er mit sich bringt. Dafür bringen sie die besten Voraussetzungen mit: David Fridley ist Wissenschaftler am "Energy Analysis Program" des Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Richard Heinberg Senior Fellow-in-Residence am Post Carbon Institute und einer der bekanntesten Peak Oil- und Peak-Everything-Autoren.
Wichtige Grundlagen
Ihr Buch ist in drei Teile gegliedert. Im Teil I "It's All About Energy" rekapitulieren sie kurz die Grundlagen zum Thema Energie. Teil II "Energy Supply in a Renewable World: Opportunities und Challenges" ist das Herzstück: Hier gehen Heinberg und Fridley sowohl die verschiedenen Formen erneuerbarer Energien als auch die wichtigsten Anwendungsfelder im Einzelnen durch. In Teil III "Preparing for Our Renewable Future" diskutieren sie die gesellschaftlichen Konsequenzen.
Weil wohl nicht jeder, der es eigentlich sollte, dieses Buch lesen wird, habe ich auf meiner Website die wichtigsten Gedanken und Erkenntnisse zusammengefasst: umsetzungsberatung.de/service/read.php?nr=382
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Our Renewable Future: Laying the Path for One Hundred Percent Clean Energy
by
Richard Heinberg,
David Fridley
3.95 · Rating details · 43 ratings · 8 reviews
The next few decades will see a profound energy transformation throughout the world. By the end of the century (and perhaps sooner), we will shift from fossil fuel dependence to rely primarily on renewable sources like solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal power. Driven by the need to avert catastrophic climate change and by the depletion of easily accessible oil, coal, and natural gas, this transformation will entail a major shift in how we live. What might a 100% renewable future look like? Which technologies will play a crucial role in our energy future? What challenges will we face in this transition? And how can we make sure our new system is just and equitable?
In Our Renewable Future, energy expert Richard Heinberg and scientist David Fridley explore the challenges and opportunities presented by the shift to renewable energy. Beginning with a comprehensive overview of our current energy system, the authors survey issues of energy supply and demand in key sectors of the economy, including electricity generation, transportation, buildings, and manufacturing. In their detailed review of each sector, the authors examine the most crucial challenges we face, from intermittency in fuel sources to energy storage and grid redesign. The book concludes with a discussion of energy and equity and a summary of key lessons and steps forward at the individual, community, and national level.
The transition to clean energy will not be a simple matter of replacing coal with wind power or oil with solar; it will require us to adapt our energy usage as dramatically as we adapt our energy sources. Our Renewable Future is a clear-eyed and urgent guide to this transformation that will be a crucial resource for policymakers and energy activists. (less)
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Paperback, 248 pages
Published June 2nd 2016 by Island Press
Original Title
Our Renewable Future: Laying the Path for One Hundred Percent Clean Energy
ISBN
1610917790 (ISBN13: 9781610917797)
Edition Language
English
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Jul 20, 2018Sandeep Tammu rated it really liked it
Shelves: read-in-2018, non-fiction
"Our renewable future" is a optimistic look at how we can we move away from fossil fuels and still continue to prosper. It focusses entirely on solar and wind energy as they are the only well-researched and developed renewable energy technologies for the next few decades at least. The problems with each energy source were discussed at depth: the intermittence of solar and wind, the problem of energy storage and inefficiencies involved in it, problems in seamless integration solar and wind into ...more
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Aug 07, 2016Ryan rated it it was amazing
Shelves: environment
A fairly comprehensive review of our present energy system and what it would take to move towards a fully renewable source from the current overwhelmingly fossil fuel driven one. Heinberg is known for his writings on limits to economic growth due to peak oil, so it comes as no surprise that the slant of this book also gravitates towards his prognosis of an end to our current energy intensive industrial civilization. He does this in a thoroughly systematic way by analyzing the challenges in detail of implementing solar, wind, hydro, nuclear and other non-conventional renewable energy systems, on a large enough scale to make a difference. The reader quickly learns that though the rapid pace of solar and wind power roll out is encouraging, we will reach limits to scaling up somewhere over the region of 60% system wide transition for various reasons.
The book is freely available in its entirety at http://ourrenewablefuture.org/, and I urge anyone interested in our collective future to drop by the website. It contains tons of useful data, charts and references to research on renewables and energy usage. To say the path ahead is daunting is a severe understatement, and I concur with the authors that it would have to entail a drastic curtailing of consumption that would lead to a new world of reduced energy and economic activity, as the sheer physics of moving from an energy dense source to one that is dispersed would dictate. (less)
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May 04, 2018Nacho rated it it was amazing
Shelves: owned
An incredibly thorough exposition of the problems that lay ahead in our quest to a future powered entirely by renewable energy sources.
It starts with a nice introduction to some key concepts (energy and power, stock and flow energy sources), and does not beat around the bush: fossil fuels are being depleted, so we can't go on like this forever; learning to live without them will not be a choice.
The book focuses on solar and wind energy (later on, it explains why it does not think nuclear energy will be of much use, as well as other renewable sources such as geothermal or hydro), and deals with the problems we will encounter: they are intermitent sources, storing energy is difficult, and electricity is only around 20% of the energy that we use globally. Fossil fuels are necessary for industrial processes and to fuel planes, and are essential components of manufactured products, so we cannot simply expect to replace carbon-burning stations with solar panels and be done with it.
With those limitations in mind, it presents different ways to overcome them, but keeping it realistic: we cannot keep growing, and indeed we need to ungrow. The future will require spending less energy and doing it differently.
I'd highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to know more about the intrincacies that the deployment of renewable energy will entail, and to anyone thinking that technology will simply take care of climate change at some point. (less)
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Apr 21, 2018Paula rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Richard Heinberg has spent the greater part of his life researching the effects of peak oil on the economy. He has now investigated how far we have come toward substituting renewable power sources for petroleum, and assessing what the prognosis might be for our future. This is important information for all of us to understand. The government has been too timid to acknowledge the coming crisis, as they are afraid to lose votes. If change is to happen before too much damage has been done, individuals must take action now. A good beginning would be to read Heinberg and understand what we're truly facing, and what we can do to help for the sake of our children's future. (less)
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Feb 26, 2019Kelsey rated it really liked it
This is a super informational book, but I didn’t realize it was going to written in a textbook format before I bought it. It has a great message & can be dense at times, but written well & is easy to read for someone who knows nothing about clean energy etc (less)
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Jun 28, 2017Joe rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Great insight into what might come next.
Wonderful insight into the possible, and inevitable future for humankind. Very informational, as well as inspirational. It would make a great read for anyone interested in energy consumption and the future of humans.
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Jan 20, 2020Šimon rated it it was amazing
Very important facts about the future of energy systems. Amazing book!
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Feb 21, 2018Qmmayer rated it really liked it
Shelves: climate-and-environment
An extremely sobering look at what will be required to transition the world to clean energy. I don't have the technical background to know how well the authors' conclusions are supported, but it strikes me as a realistic assessment of the practical hurdles involved. If anything, the book appears to be too confident that the renewable transition will inevitably occur in the near future due to rising fossil fuel prices, which may be optimistic given the newly economical oil and gas reserves in the U.S. as a result of fracking. (Claims of "Peak Oil" appear premature.) Regardless, the authors recognize that by the time the economic signals are clear, it will be too late for the climate. The theme of the book, which is not often heard elsewhere, is that a renewable energy world will require significantly less energy use and real shift in western world consumption. It should also be a more rewarding, healthier existence. But quite different from today. (less)
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