Sustainability – Book Review, “Sustainable Energy – without the hot air“: Enhancing Innovation, Creativity and Value Series in Sustainability and Technology.
Sustainable Energy
Inventive Opportunity – I just completed my first read of the free downloadable version of David JC MacKay (Professor, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge) 2009 new book called, “Sustainable Energy – without the hot air“. Included at the bottom of this post is David’s website address - download the free version and find out where to buy a hard copy.
In the section “What’s this book about?” David wrote, “This is a straight-talking book about the numbers. The aim is to guide the reader around the claptrap to actions that really make a difference and to policies that add up.” I agree with what he wrote in the above quote.
David MacKay’s book points the way for the reader through a sustainable process from looking at and understanding the data, the applications and relevance of the information and what actions will make an impact. Listed below are the sections of the book with a few brief highlights.
Part One – “Number, not adjectives“ Chapters 1 – 18 detail such topics as: cars, wind, planes, solar, heating and cooling, hydroelectricity, light offshore wind, wave, tide and geothermal. Chapter 18 “Can we live on renewables“ David compares our daily consumption “red stack” with our production stack of renewables - without the economic, social and environmental constraints.”
Part Two - “Making a difference” Chapter 19 – 32, The focus is on better transportation, smarter heating, electrical efficiency and energy planning.
Part Three – “Technical Chapters“ Chapters A – H, includes cars, wind, planes, solar, heating, waves, tide and stuff. David was successful in taking topics that are complex or seem to be and simplifying it, so the reader can grasp and utilize the information. A great reference tool that I will be re-reading more than a few times.
Part Four – “Useful data“ Reference material and other information that can be used in the reading of the book. SI units and other data can provide assistance in the technical applications. Includes a list of web links, bibliography, index and a section about the author.
Bottom Line: An excellent book and well worth the read.
Post Image from – NASA Website (PIA10364)
* Joe Friday quote source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Friday)
*David MacKay Website (http://www.withouthotair.com/)
Perry Woodworth, Technical Writer and Researcher
Enhancing Innovation, Creativity and Value. Are You Missing An Inventive Opportunity?
nice blog post. Was really interesting in general and few bits of new info for me which i didin’t know before reading this.
Heya i got to your site by mistake when i was searching bing for something off topic here but i do have say your site is really helpful, like the theme and the content on here…so thanks for me procrastinating from my previous task, lol