My Next Book on Renewables — Looking for a Few Big Ideas
I’m trying to get some “big ideas” for my next book on renewables. The one I favor at this point is a take-off on the first book’s “tough realities” theme:
What, pragmatically, are we facing – technologically, economically, and politically — in terms of the migration to renewables?
I like to investigate the themes that I myself most want to learn about – in the belief that my own way of thinking is a reasonable proxy for others. To that end, I propose to explore ideas like:
- Socially, how to you make this happen? I.e., How does one motivate people to deal with the financial pain of the front-loaded costs of renewables? In particular, how do we accomplish this in the real world of politics and public relations in which we live?
- To what degree is efficiency important? What is the import of the fact that Europeans about one-half the amount of power per capita as Americans? But again, how to do get people to deal with a certain amount of sacrafice?
- I deliver consulting services to companies that take ecologically dangerous substances (e.g., chicken manure and coal ash) and turn it into clean and useful products (e.g., energy and building products, respectively) that have had a tough time selling their wares, since historically there has been no legal imperative for anyone to adopt new, cleaner business practices. How is that likely to change in the coming years, as the world sees an increasing need to protect itself from the lethal effects of pollution? How will that change affect my clients’ business viability?
- To what degree does society need to create millions of decentralized and localized “utilities” in the form of consumers with their own PV arrays, wind turbines, etc? Can this help us avoid making the same mistake we made last time in creating huge energy companies and centralized utilities?
- Is there a way to do any of this without a significant increase in the price of fossil-fuel-based energy? If not, as I currently suspect, how should that price increase come about?
- What are the most likely scenarios for the increasing costs (economic, social, military) of our current course re: fossil fuels?
- In turn, what are the most likely trajectories for the migration to clean energy, considering the growth in energy-hungry segments of the world’s population?
- Will there be a gap, as some suggest, where the energy required to build and deploy renewables in a timely fashion is simply unavailable? What then?
- And speaking of gaps, why is there such a huge chasm between most serious scientists and economists – and those who believe that “business as usual” is a reasonable course for mankind to pursue?
Please let me know what you think here. Thanks.
In my estimation, Scott Adams (of “Dilbert” fame) is one of the brightest people living among us. His sardonic observations on the realities of the workplace have amused – and, I dare say, enlightened — people for many decades.
Here’s a conversation that I hope you find interesting. The other day, I got this from a friend:
I spoke with Honda’s Steve Ellis yesterday about the position I took in my book re: hydrogen fuel-cell-based cars. Steve is a vocal proponent for this controversial technology, and his job, I’ve come to learn, involves busily correcting misinformation on the subject – of which there is plenty.
