Energy for a warming world

Green Energy and Technology Alan J Sangster Energy for a Warming World A Plan to Hasten the Demise of Fossil Fuels 123 Alan J Sangster, PhD, CEng, FIET Heriot-Watt University School of Engineering and Physical Science Edinburgh EH14 4AS United Kingdom a.j.sangster@hw.ac.uk ISSN 1865-3529 e-ISSN 1865-3537 ISBN 978-1-84882-833-9 e-ISBN 978-1-84882-834-6 DOI 10.1007/978-1-84882-834-6 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Control Number: 2009942246 © Springer-Verlag London Limited 2010 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers The use of registered names, trademarks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant laws and regulations and therefore free for general use The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made Cover design: WMXDesign, Heidelberg, Germany Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) To Emily I trust you will not have cause, one day, to castigate my generation for leaving an impoverished planet for yours Preface In December 2007 I was motivated, by something I had read relating to the environment, to submit to the editor of a long established Scottish newspaper, namely the Herald, a letter making some comments on global warming, which at the time I felt needed to be expressed It contained the following paragraph: It troubles me that the news media, politicians, industrialists, economists and even some scientists continue to ‘green-wash’ the situation by propagating the lie that renewable sources of power will allow 6.5 billion people, growing rapidly to 10 billion, to pursue Western style energy wasteful modes of living, while at the same time protecting the planet I suspect that even if every suitable pocket of land on the surface of the planet were covered with windmills, solar panels and bio-fuel crops, and if every suitable sea shelf, estuary and strait were furnished with windmills, wave machines and barrage systems, we would still have insufficient power from renewables to accomplish this Since submitting it, I have been exercised by niggling doubts as to the extent to which this statement is fully supported by the scientific and engineering evidence My ‘gut feeling’ – not an instinct I like to rely on too much as an engineer – on the basis of my long acquaintance with electrical systems, and of wide reading on the subject of global warming, is that it probably expresses a grain of truth about the exaggerated claims for ‘renewables’, not by those ‘at the sharp end’ developing these renewable systems, I hasten to add, but by those with a vested interested in unimpeded economic growth The ‘spin’, which largely amounts to unsubstantiated assertions made repeatedly in certain organs of the ‘media’, in effect suggests that renewable resources can provide a complete replacement for fossil fuels, when they eventually run out, or preferably, are locked below ground before they If we assume that a post fossil fuel era will arrive, sooner or later, the implication is that for the foreseeable future energy supply will not be constrained, and hence that ‘business as usual’, particularly in the industrialised world, is possible I should note that here, and throughout the book, the term renewable energy implies energy diverted to human use, which is endlessly available as a result of daily solar radiation passing through the atmosphere and striking the surface of the vii viii Preface planet This diversion does not add to or subtract from the Earth’s energy balance and is thus sustainable Some well established global warming arguments, which suggest that businessas-usual is not an option for mankind, are revisited in Chap The exhortations emanating from these arguments urging the global community to drastically cut fossil fuel usage, and to expand energy supply from the so called ‘renewables’, are also reconsidered from an electrical engineer’s perspective However, despite the expressed fears, the commonplace presumption appears to have developed, for whatever reason, that the amount of power that mankind can potentially harness from hydro, wind, wave, sun and other renewable resources, is more than large enough to assuage future demand levels While the levels of potential global power consumption, which are well documented, usually in official reports, are generally accepted as being reliable, the presumption of unlimited power from renewables is like saying that since we have enough land to grow all the wheat we need, the future global consumption of bread will be satisfied Just because enough land may be available it does not necessarily mean that it will be allocated to the growing of wheat, or that enough wheat will be grown, or that grain will be available where it is needed, or that enough bread will be baked where it is most required Such a statement of potential capacity doesn’t really get you very far Competing interests will inevitably interfere What we need to compare is electrical power that can reasonably be delivered to consumer sockets (after taking account of land suitability, land use, losses in the electrical generation and transmission systems), with the rate at which fossil-fuels are being consumed worldwide, to get a more realistic appreciation of the extent to which renewable capacity and global demand are likely to converge Here the issue has been examined from a more firmly focused engineering perspective than appears to have been attempted elsewhere By taking a closer look at the original, readily available, undoctored power and energy data for renewable resources, it has been possible to construct, a coherent and comprehensive, scientific account of the current situation, vis-à-vis the potential capacity of alternative power supplies From this firm knowledge base, an attempt has then been made to develop reliable engineering predictions of the exploitation potential of each of these sustainable resources in a 30–40 year time frame In so doing it has been necessary to assume that we can depend on technology that is either currently available or is presently under development, and is therefore capable of being brought on-stream in this timescale Also, by relying on well established electrical engineering laws, techniques and data, the computational process has, hopefully, allowed us to arrive at firm estimates for the power, which might realistically be transmitted to global consumers from these sources As far as has been possible I have conducted the energy assessment exercise with my ‘engineering hat’ firmly on, and hopefully much of the content reflects this However, any book impinging on global warming, the truth or otherwise of anthropogenic forcing, and the problems of weaning mankind off its dependency on fossil fuels, is inevitably dealing with intensely economic and political issues Consequently, it has obviously been difficult not to enter this political debate to Preface ix some extent, no matter how tangential some of these issues may be to the main thrust of the book Where I have done so, intentionally or unintentionally, I can only hope that the contributions are justifiable and helpful The approach will probably be dismissed, in some quarters, as being economically naïve, but given the events of 2008 which suggest that ‘economic science’ is on the point of unravelling, who knows what now constitutes sound economics? Notwithstanding the intentionally narrow scope of the exercise, the engineering logic has led inexorably to a global perspective on renewable power supply and transmission, which has some surprising and uncomfortable ramifications for mankind While several contributors to the debate have hinted at some of these consequences, I am not aware of any alternative assessments of the issues of global electrical supply and demand in the post fossil fuel era, which also highlight the potentially awkward implications that are lying in wait for advanced societies in making the transition to renewables Within the main chapters of the book I have attempted to furnish enough in the way of electrical engineering fundamentals to provide a primer for the reader to help him/her to appreciate the following: how renewable sources of energy can be exploited to provide electricity: how the electricity is generated and transmitted: what the constraints are: where the limits to the exploitation of renewable resources lie: how we can overcome intermittency of supply While we shall need some basic physics and some elementary electrical engineering concepts to intelligently develop our arguments, this is certainly not an electrical engineering book in the college text sense It contains no electrical engineering science beyond a very basic, school science, level A good understanding of energy and power relationships, which are often poorly understood by non-scientists, is key to being able to assess or question the claims of the energy industry, particularly in relation to ‘renewables’, and to reach as wide an audience as possible the book attempts, largely through analogy, to illuminate these relationships in Chap Nonetheless, engineering and scientific concepts are most precisely expressed through mathematics, and for those who did not turn their backs on the subject at an early age, some relevant equations are provided in the referenced ‘notes’ Renewable sources of power and their exploitability are evaluated in Chap 3, while the enabling topic of massive energy storage is dealt with in Chap The final chapter is Chap 5, in which some engineering based conclusions, and I stress ‘engineering based’, tinged with some unavoidable, but hopefully helpful, personal observations, are presented, with the aim of examining the manner in which the technological transition might possibly proceed, to a world in which electricity is supplied entirely from renewable resources, as they become the only source of power that mankind can safely access Naturally all views, assertions, claims, calculations and items of factual information contained in this book have been selected or generated by myself, and any errors therein are my responsibility However, the book would not have seen the light of day without numerous personal interactions (too many to identify), with family, with friends, and with colleagues at the Heriot-Watt University, on the topic of global warming So if I have talked to you on this topic, I thank you for x Preface your contribution, and the stimulus it may have provided for the creation of this book I would, also, particularly like to thank my son Iain (Sangster Design) for one of the illustrations, and the members of staff at the Heriot-Watt University library, who have been very helpful in ensuring that I was able to access a wide range of written material, the contents of some of which have been germane to the realisation of this project Edinburgh, Scotland 2009 Alan J Sangster Contents The Context and Corollaries 1.1 Weather Warnings 1.2 Unstoppable ‘Growth’ 1.3 Eye of the Beholder 1.4 Techno-fix Junkies 1.5 Dearth of Engineers 1 13 18 Energy Conversion and Power Transmission 23 2.1 Energy Conservation 23 2.2 Power and Entropy 24 2.3 Gravity 25 2.4 Electricity 27 2.5 Generators 33 2.6 The Grid 37 2.7 The Power Leakage Dilemma 42 Limits to Renewability 45 3.1 Power from the Sun 45 3.2 Hydro-power 48 3.3 Wind Power 53 3.4 Wave Power 57 3.5 Tidal Power 62 3.6 Solar Power 65 3.7 Geo-thermal Power 74 3.8 The End of an Illusion 77 Intermittency Buffers 81 4.1 Energy Storage 81 4.2 Pump Storage 82 4.3 Compressed Air 85 xi 164 References and Notes [23] Braun, H.W., Solar Sterling gensets for large-scale hydrogen production Solar Energy Technology SED-13:21–29, 1992 [24] Kurokawa, K., Energy from the Desert http://www.iea-pvps.org/ [25] James, W., The Moral Equivalent of War Essays of Faith and Morals Longman Green, New York & London, 1949 [26] Athanasiou, T., Slow Reckoning Secker & Warburg, London, 1996 [27] Hansen, J et al., Target atmospheric CO2: where should humanity aim eprint arXiv:0804.1126, April 2008 [28] Monbiot, G., The Guardian Newspaper, UK, 25 November 2008 [29] Meadows, D et al., The Limits to Growth: Thirty Year Update Earthscan, UK, 2005 [30] Lovelock, J., The Vanishing Face of Gaia Basic Books, 2009 [31] Porritt, J., November 14, 2008, http://www.jonathonporritt.com/pages/2008/11/population_1.html [32] http://www.xs4all.nl/~jcdverha/scijokes/9_6.html Index A Abbott, Diane, 13 accelerator, 107 actuators, 61 aerodynamic, 53, 54, 136 aeronautic, 134, 139 industry, 134, 139, 140, 141 aerosols, 134 air travel, 15, 131, 133 aircraft commercial, 131 consumption, 131 fuselage, 131 hydrogen, 131 transcontinental, 132 wings, 131 Alaska, 75, 101 Aleutian Islands, 75 aluminium, 34, 38, 110 ammonia, 103 Ampere, 29 Andes, 75 Angier, Natalie, 42 anode, 104 Antarctica, 3, 9, 36 antenna aerial, 30 cone, 59 appliances pump, 43 Arabia, 65, 72 Arctic, 4, 16, 108 Arctic Ocean, Arizona, 73 Ascherson, Neal, Athanasiou, Tom, 6, 141 atmosphere, 1, 46, 104, 130 Auckland, 65 Austin, Texas, 89 Australia, 16, 18, 20, 72, 75 automobile battery, 131, 132 cars, 14, 99, 132, 133 commercial vehicle, 140 fuel-cell, 132 hydrogen, 131 industry, 134, 139, 140 propulsion, 131 refrigeration, 132 truck, 140 B Bartlett, A.A., battery, 96, 97, 99, 101 anode, 97 carbon-plastic, 101 cathode, 97 charge, 97 DC-AC, 96 e.m.f (electromotive force), 98 efficiency, 102 electrolyte, 97 energy density, 102 flexibility, 96 lead-acid, 97 loss, 98 materials, 102 membrane, 101 metal, 107 oil, 102 165 166 recharge, 132 rechargeable, 97 storage, 96, 120 BBC, 13 Bear Stearns, beholder, Bell, Ian, 12 Betz, Albert, 53 bio-fuel crops, 131 sea-weed, 137 biosphere, 138 Blair, A., 15, 16 Boeing 747, 131 Boycott, Rosie, 13 Brazil, 11, 20 BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China), 20 brine, 87 Bristol Channel, 64 bromine, 101 Brown, Gordon, 16 Burns, Rabbie, 10 business, 7, 10, 19 C cable, 38 buried, 39 overhead, 39 undersea, 40 cadmium, 100 calculator, 129 Calhoun, John B., California, 75 Canada, 3, 10, 16, 46, 101 cancer, 116 capacitor, 107, 108, 111, 123 capacitance, 40 ceramic, 109 dielectric, 108, 110 electrochemical, 110, 111 electrode, 107 electrolytic, 110, 111 energy, 101, 107, 111 capacity, 123 capillary, 106 carbon, 3, 52, 103 capture, 103 carbon dioxide, 1, 143 carbon monoxide, 95, 103 CO2, 16, 103 credits, 16 emissions, 16, 133 fibre, 54 Index greenhouse gas, 2, 7, 8, 12, 15, 17, 48, 126, 133, 134, 139, 143 pollution, 142 sinks, 131 trading, Caribbean, Carnot, 36, 37 Carnot cycle, 36 cast iron, 95 cathode, 104 Central America, 75 chairman, 20 channel, 40, 62 Chernobyl, 116 Chihuahuan, 73 China, 4, 10, 16, 20, 48, 77 circuit bulbs, 119 chargers, 119 digital, 20 earth, 119 electrical pendulum, 30, 107 filter, 107 output terminal, 34, 69 resonant, 30, 107 switch, 99, 119 transmission, 40 tunable filter, 30 climate, accident, 138 aerosols, 134 carbon pollution, change, 15 climatic model, CO2 absorption, cyclones, equable, 138 forcing, runaway, 138, 142 scientists, 15 stabilization bill, 143 tipping point, 146 unpredictability, Climate Change Fund, 142 climatologist, clockwork, 119, 129 C-magnet, 31 CNN, coast coastal area, 56, 62 coastline, 78, 126 dwelling, collectors, 58, 70 colleges, 18 Index combined cycle, 37 combustion, 36, 72 commerce banking, 138 BAU (business-as-usual), 15, 47, 79, 117, 125, 131, 132, 145 credit, 5, credit crunch, 138 debt, interest, market, 138 money, 144 commerceTEQ (tradable energy quotas), communication, 20, 134 community, 4, 15, 37, 80, 121 compressed air, 85 aquiver, 87 caverns, 86 compressor, 86 gas, 86 gas pressure, 86 geology, 87 Germany, 85 isothermal, 86 leakage, 87 mines, 87 solution mining, 87 USA, 85 compressor, 133 computer, 134 conductor, 31, 39, 111 conducting wires, 29, 39 copper, 32 electrical conductivity, 38 electrical resistivity, 38 losses, 39 ohmic loss, 34, 38, 40 ohms, 34 perfect, 39 resistive loss, 30, 35 semi-, 66 skin effect, 38, 73 super-, 91 consumer, 144 consumerism, 15 demand, 62 electrical gadgets, 81 electronics, 66 convection, 46 conversion efficiency, 37, 53 converters, 141 copper, 27, 34, 39, 104 coriolis, 63 corona, 39 167 covalent, 109 Cruachan, 50, 83 cryogenic, 132 C-shaped, 31 current AC, 28, 119 ampere, 29 DC, 105 direct current, 28 free electrons, 39 inverters, 60 cylinder, 61, 72, 87 D Dawkins, Richard, 23, 24, 25 decouple, 55 demand, 125 commerce, 125 domestic, 125 energy, 127 industry, 125 transport, 125 democratic levers, 144 mandate, 14 nation, 146 Denial Industry, Denmark, 12 density air, 53 energy, 83, 100, 106, 110, 131 fresh water, 51 ion, 101 magnetic flux, 32 power, 39, 47, 69, 71, 79 salt water, 58, 64 steel, 90 desert, 70, 72 diesel engine, 72 digital electronics, 134 digital radio, 30 dipole, 109 distilled water, 100 distribution, 37, 41, 44, 73, 79, 99 diurnal, 62 diversification, 126 Djibouti, 75 drag, 25, 35, 132 drive shaft, 49, 54 dynamics, 46, 144 dynamo, dysfunctional, 126 dystopia, 11 168 E Earth Gaia, 9, 14 Gaia hypothesis, life support, 45 planet, 4, 8, 12, 14, 47, 72, 126, 133 Earth’s atmosphere, 7, 65 axis, 46 cone, 47 disc, 65 surface, 65 Earth Summit, 143 East River, 64 eccentricity, ecogrid, 118, 119, 120, 121, 138, 139, 140 building, 145 circuit model, 119 construction, 133, 141 eco-war, 139 engineering, 143 high voltage, 120 infrastructure, 139 statictics, 119 storage, 120 ecological, 131, 139 ecology, desert, 73 ecosystem, footprint, 145 route map, 142 economy Chicago School, collapse, 145, 146 computer model, 144 emergency, 138 energy, 6, 47, 80 GDP (gross domestic products), 20, 127 global, 142 growth, 74, 77, 130, 138, 142, 145 implications, 141 law of economics, LTG (Limits to Growth), market, 4, 7, 13, 17, 80, 138 market friendly, 7, 16 monetarism, monetary system, national, order, 138 public sector, 43 recession, 5, 6, 14 secular society, Index social cost, 14 taxation, 142 UK, Voodoo economics, wartime, 138 eddy current, 35, 92 education, 18 efficiency energy, 14 enforcement, 127 generator, 33, 35 programmes, 7, 129 electric, 127 electric charge attraction, 26, 28, 96, 108 coulomb, 29 negative charge, 108 particle, 28, 96 positive charge, 109 repulsion, 27 electrical appliance, 43, 127 cooker, 43 dishwasher, 43 fridge, 43 kettle, 28 washing machine, 43 electrical power, 10, 17, 27, 31, 41, 67, 73, 74, 84, 116 electrical supply, 47, 95, 99 electrical transmission, 37, 40, 73, 79, 99 electricity, 42, 44, 73 current, 27, 29, 32, 34, 38 DC, 28 earth, 119 electric fire, 31 electric train, 35 gadgets, 129 grid, 37, 57 grid loss, 50, 55 grid steel core, 39 grid voltage, 38, 69, 99 interconnection, 30, 40 leakage, 42, 87, 88 production of, 77 pylon, 39, 40, 141 reactive power, 39, 40, 73 savings, 127 transformer, 35, 38, 40, 52, 61, 69, 71 transformer park, 38 users, 43 electrochemical, 97, 98 electrolyser, 104 electrolysis, 132 Index electrolyte, 110 electromagnetic theory, 45 electromagnetic waves, 28, 38, 46, 67 electromagnetism, 29 wave penetration, 39 electron spin, 31 electronics, 43, 55, 129 broadband, 134 communications, 134, 135 computer, 134 conferencing, 134 devices, 127, 129, 135 digital, 134 imaging, 135 systems, 30 electrons, 27, 31, 66, 97, 108 electrostatics, 29 electrostatic field, 29, 108 hair, 27 inverse square law, 29 permittivity, 38, 108, 109, 110 plastic, 101 potential, 29 silk, 27 electro-technical, 17 Empire Exhibition, 135 end users, 42 endothermic, 105 energy, 128 chemical, 93 consumption, 127 conversion, 67, 143 elastic band, 26 heat, 25, 36, 71, 93 joules, 24 kinetic, 24 largesse, 143 MES (magnetic energy storage), 118 molecular, 24, 28, 109, 111 potential, 24, 26 power absorbed, 25 storage, 118 transference, 30 transition, 145 vibrational, 34 work, 63 engine, 36 engineer, 18, 19, 141 professional, 140 engineering breakthrough, 126 civil, 20, 139 courses, 139 169 decline, 20 degrees, 20 Engineering Council, 20 graduates, 18 image, 19 limitations, 126 logic, 121, 139 macroscopic, 144 mechanical, 34, 113 nano-engineering, 144 project, 121 social, 144 students, 139 study, 19 trends, 134 way forward, 139 world, 144 England, 8, 64 environment, 10, 11, 12, 36, 43, 46, 58, 115 damage, 44 degradation, 126 environmentalists, 12 safe, 126 environmental, 34 Eocene, 16 Ethiopia, 75 ethos, 19 ethylene, 110 eureka, 19 Europe, 2, 13, 18, 42, 51, 87 EU Emissions, 16 European Union, 16 eutectic, 95 explosion, 92 extinction, 3, 9, 16 eye, 10 F factory-built, 139 Fairbanks, 101 fallout, 117 Fannie Mae, Farad, 108 Faraday, Michael, 4, 29, 31, 35, 98, 112 feedback, 145 feed-forward, 145 Fermi, Enrico, 42, 140 fertilizer, 103 fibre-glass, 54 finance, financiers, 170 fish, 53 Flannery, Tim, 14 flywheel, 89 axis, 89, 90 bearing, 91 clutch, 91 containment, 89, 92 disc, 88, 89 explosion, 92, 120 farm, 91, 93 friction, 91 high speed, 90, 93 inertia, 89 material, 88, 89, 90 rundown, 92 sensors, 91 shaping, 89 forest, 131 formula, 51, 62, 89 fossil fuel, 3, 6, 7, 8, 12, 14, 15, 17, 20, 21, 25, 47, 48, 50, 52, 55, 78, 80, 84, 88, 94, 99, 104, 118, 125, 126, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 136, 137, 138, 139, 142, 143, 144 capital, 139 coal, 1, 6, 20, 33, 36, 47, 103, 104, 129 combustion, 131 gasoline, 37 limit, 142 methane, 3, 95, 103 natural gas, 80, 82 oil, 80 oil deposits, oil wells, 12, 103 permits, 142 reserves, 125 run out, 139 smoke, France, 20, 44, 63, 74, 114, 116 Freddie Mac, free market, 141 frequency, 2, 30, 34, 40, 50, 84 friction, 24, 35 forces, 46 frictional effects, 24 frictional losses, 40 frictionless, 36, 112 Friedman, Milton, fuel cell, 97, 101 fusion, 94 future, 138 Index G gamma, 117 gas, 72 generator, 29, 32 armature, 32, 33, 50 bearing losses, 35 electrical generator, 30, 92 electrical machines, 29, 33 emf (electromotive force), 32, 98 mechanical losses, 35 phase, 33 rotational speed, 49 single phase, 33 stator, 32 stray losses, 35 synchronous, 50, 54 three phase, 34, 40, 69 geo-engineering, 143 geology, 120 geometry, 47, 79 geothermal, 46, 75, 76, 78, 79 geo-thermal power binary plant, 76 borehole, 76 condenser, 76 cooling tower, 76 granite strata, 75 magma, 75 ring of fire, 75 secondary fluid, 76 sources, 75, 76, 79 tectonic plate, 75 thermal gradient, 75 Germany, 12, 20, 85, 90, 100, 114 glacier, Glasgow, 135 glass, 69, 108 global heating, 138 global market, 7, 14, 16 global politics G6, 20 G8, 15, 16 intergovernmental, 17 IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), 17 Kyoto, 7, 16 Kyoto Protocol, 7, 16 global warming, globe, 1, 144 Glomfjord, 106 Gobi, 72 government executive, 139 Index graduates, 19, 20 gravity, 24, 26 arc, 23 cricket ball, 26, 29 gravitational acceleration, 24, 27, 58 gravitational force, 26, 27, 46, 67 Newton, 23, 32 pendulum, 23 trajectory, 26 Great Basin, 73 Great Sandy, 72 Great Wall, 141 green, 116 greenhouse gas, 139 ships, 136 Greenland, green-wash, 77 grid, 118 cable, 141 pylon, 141 gyrobus, 89 H habitat, 9, 146 harbour, 65 headlight, 70, 71 headset, 136 health, 4, 117 heat engine, 36 piston, 72 helium, 136 Herald, newspaper, 12, 20, 135 Hillman, Mayer, 135 Hindenburg, 132, 137 hinge, 24 holiday, 136 holography, 136 homes, 43 hothouse, 7, 16 household, 42 human, 12, 135, 145 belief systems, 146 family size, 146 footprint, 145 history, 138 humanity, 6, 9, 74, 77, 131, 139 over-population, 145 progress, 138 species, 146 welfare, 145 Hunterston, 83 Huntorf, 87, 88 171 HVDC (high voltage direct current), 85, 121 hydrate, 94 hydraulic, 55 hydrocarbon, 103 hydrogen, 102 bond, 110 cell, 104 cell efficiency, 105 cell overload, 106 compressed, 132 compressed gas, 106 electrodes, 104 electrolysis, 103, 104 energy carrier, 103 energy density, 100, 106 energy resource, 103 filter press cell, 105 from oil, 103 fuel cell, 136, 137 gas envelope, 137 lift gas, 136 liquid, 106, 131 metallic hydride, 106 PEM (proton exchange membrane), 104 production, 103 reforming, 103 stations, 133 storage, 106, 119 tank cell, 105 transport, 106 water-gas shift, 103 hydro-power, 10, 48, 50, 53, 55 artificial reservoir, 48 Aswan dam, 48, 51, 62, 78 Ben Cruachan, 50, 83 dams, 52 Europe, 83 head, 49 hydro-electric, 8, 10, 13, 46, 50, 52, 53, 63, 82, 85 hydro-scheme, 9, 10, 53 hydro-systems, 11 Kaplan wheel, 49, 59 Loch Awe, 83 Pelton wheel, 49, 50 penstock, 49 reservoir, 40, 48, 53, 59, 63, 82, 85, 87, 137 sites, 78 valley, 52 hydroxyl, 104 172 I Iberia, 74 ice core, record, sheet, Iceland, 75 Illinois, 57 image processing, 20 India, 4, 10, 16, 20, 48, 72, 77 Indonesia, 75 inductance, 112 induction, 60 coil, 30 emf, 107 inductor, 30, 31, 107 industrial, 6, 16 industrial revolution, 10 industry, 43 Indy Mac, infra-red, 47 insulator glass, 108 polyester, 54 silica, 27 intermittency, 81, 119 intermittent, 55, 80, 82, 84, 118, 120, 126 internal combustion, 36, 72, 100 internet, 134 inverter, 121 ion, 97, 104 isothermal, 105 Itaipu Dam, 11 Italy, 20, 64, 83 J Japan, 18, 20, 75, 85, 87, 100, 102, 114 jet aircraft, 54 journal, junkies, 13, 136 K Kamchatka, 75 Katrina, 2, Kazakhs, 73 Keiller, Bob, 21 Kelvin, Lord, 25, 93 Kenya, 75 Index Kevlar, 90 Keynes, J.M., 144 Kyoto, 142 Kyoto2, 143 L La Rance, 63 labourer, 141 laggard, 61 lake, 46 Lake Nasser, 51 land, 47 landscape, 9, 12, 69, 144 laser, 107 leadership, 144 lecture theatre, 23 lens, 70 levers democratic, 144 market, 144 levitation, 91 lifestyle, 139 light absorbed, 67 bulbs, 41, 119 fluorescent lighting, 43 lighting, 33, 41, 43, 74, 99, 127 photon, 67 radiant flux, 47 radiation, 2, 45, 77, 79, 115, 116, 117 Snell’s laws, 70 ultra-violet, 47 lightning, 28 bolt, 28 flash, 28 literature, 14, 65, 73, 102, 123, 127 lithium, 100 load centre, 37 locomotive, 89 logic, 140 London, 16, 134 Lorentz force, 31, 91 Los Alamos, 114 Lovelock, James, 1, 9, 14, 125 low-grade, 37 lunar cycle, 63, 65 M MacCracken, Michael C., 14 Machiavelli, 144 Index Maglev, 91 magnet, 31, 82, 91 core loss, 34, 35 energy, 30, 112 field, 30, 31, 38, 54, 111, 113 flux, 32, 35, 91 iron, 31 permanent, 31, 55, 91 permeability, 38 pole, 31, 32, 33 shielding, 113 soft iron, 35 stack, 33, 38 stray fields, 120 tesla, 32 magnifying glass, 69 mains electricity, 33 manganese, 104 Manhattan, 42 mankind, 146 Manning, Aubrey, manpower, 21, 74, 134, 140, 142 manual, Manukau, 65 marine, 63 mass, 46, 47, 86 mass media, mathematics, 19 Max-Planck-Institut, 90 Maxwell, James Clerk, 10, 23 McIntosh, 85, 88 McKinsey Institute, 130 Mediterranean Sea, 73 meltdown, 116 metal, 6, 27, 100, 104, 116 Meteorological Office, 15 methanation, 95 Mexico, 56, 72, 75 Michigan, 42, 102 microwave, 43 frequencies, 30 millennium, mineral, mirror, 39 mobile phone, modernisation, 53, 118 Mojave, 71, 72 molecules, 26, 97, 110, 136 molten rock, 47 Monbiot, George, 14, 15, 16 Mongols, 73 moon, 46, 62 Moscow, 114 173 motor, 31, 137 effect, 32 motorway, 11, 133 mountain, 52, 56, 75, 83 Murphy’s law, 146 Mutriku, 60 N nation, 43, 77, 121 national, 7, 138, 142, 143 navigation, 62 Negev, 72 Neil, Andrew, 13 neutron, 115 New Economics Foundation, 17 New Orleans, New York, 42 New Zealand, 18, 64, 75 Newtonian, 46 Niagara Falls, 46 nickel, 100, 104 Nile, 51 Nimbyism, 56 niobium, 113 Nissum Bredning, 59 nitrate, 95 nitrogen, 103 non-polluting, 57 North East Passage, North Sea, 59 North West Passage, Northern Rock, Norway, 10, 106 nuclear base load, 79, 128, 130 bomb, 115 containment, 115 coolant, 116 fission, 116, 117 fusion, 13, 79, 103, 126, 143 material, 115 moderator, 115 power, 13, 115, 116, 117 radioactive, 47, 115 radioactive decay, 47, 116 radioactivity, 116 reactor, 115 safety, 115 statistics, 116 thermal energy, 116 thorium, 128 uranium, 47, 115 174 O ocean, 13, 46, 56, 57 swell, 58 waves, 57, 58, 59 Oersted, 29 Ontario, 85 optical, 72 optically reflective, 13 orbit, circular, elliptical, ore, 117 Outer Hebrides, 58 outflow, 48, 51 oxygen, 3, 27, 103 P Pacific Ocean, 25, 75 Pacific Plate, 75 Pandora, 52 paradigm shift, 18 paradox, 146 Paraguay, 11 Pascal, 86 patent, 137 pentamaran, 137 people-movers, 134 Philippines, 75 phosphorus, 103 photograph, physical constant, 38 physics, piano, 42 pin-ball machine, 34, 66 Plante, Gaston, 97 platinum, 104 polar, 108, 109 political, 8, 116, 121, 141 political classes, 13 politician, 13 pollution, 144 polyolefin, 101 population, 8, 14, 145 cap, 127 experiment, generations, 138 mouse universe, 110 plateau, 79 Portillo, Michael, 13 Portugal, 74 potassium, 100 Index Póvoa de Varzim, 61 power capacity, 34, 140 ceiling, 127 consumption, 125 density, 39, 47, 64, 79 installed, 140 loss, 34, 35, 38, 39, 43, 73 mechanical, 59 renewable, 12, 82, 115, 118, 119, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 132, 136, 138, 141 station, 49, 52 war-time, 142 predators, prehistoric, 16 pre-industrial, 3, 17, 80 prime mover, 33, 34, 36, 49, 55, 76 principle, 138 propagate, 2, 46 proselytizers, 131 proton, 27, 115 prototype, 64 Puerto Rico, 101 pulse, 90 pump storage, 82 Cruachan, 83 Loch Awe, 83 seawater, 85 tunnels, 83 turbine/generator, 84 underground, 85 Yanbaru, 85 Q Quantum theory, 45 R radar, 107 radio, 30 radio waves, 30 railways, 134 receiver, 70, 71 rectifier, 121 rectifying, 60 redundant, 37 refineries, 11, 103 refrigeration, 36, 91, 113 regulation, relativity, 45 reliability, 126 Index renewability, 45 renewables, 8, 141 resistance, 34, 38, 39, 57, 112, 137, 142 resources, 6, 44, 74, 77, 121 response time, 123 reversing switch, 41 Rjukan, 106 role model doctors, 19 lawyers, 19 Romm, Joseph, 133 rubber, 26, 109 Russia, 20, 114 ruthenium, 104 S safeguard, 138 Sahara, 68, 72, 73 sails, 137 satellite, 51 Scandinavia, 83, 85 scenery, 9, 10, 12 school teacher, 19, 25 science, 19 Scientific American, 7, scientist, 2, 3, 9, 14, 53, 125, 128, 135, 142 Scotland, 8, 48, 50, 58, 83, 126, 128 sea bed, 63 energy, 63 floor, 61 inlet, 48, 59 level, 48, 59, 62, 63 salinity, 63 salt water, 13 stream, 65 uranium, 117 season, 81 self-sufficiency, 126 semi-conducting junction, 28 semiconductor, 67 anti-reflective coating, 69 arsenic, 66 bifaciality, 68 diffusion, 66 diode, 67 dopant, 66 hole, 66 indium, 66 intrinsic layer, 67 N-type, 66 PIN, 67 175 P-type, 66 silicon crystal, 66 silicon wafer, 68 sensitivity, servomechanism, 140 shaft, 36, 85, 91 shipping, 3, 64 shore, 55, 78 shoreline, 61 Sievert, 117 signal processing, 20 silicon, 66 Sinclair, Clive, 136 sinusoidal, 34, 58, 69 Sizewell, 99 Smith, Adam, smog, 12 smoke, 66 society, 4, 6, 10, 19 Sod’s law, 146 sodium, 100 software, 20 solar farm, 12, 120 solar heat, solar power, 12, 13, 73, 130 control, 140 conversion efficiency, 71, 72 CSP (concentrated solar power), 57, 66, 69 CSP farms, 70 CSP topologies, 70 CSP trough, 70 electronic tracking, 70 Europe, 73 farm, 140 genset, 140 heliostat, 72 insolation, 65 irradiance, 65 land area, 78 mirror, 71, 72 parabolic reflectors, 70 photovoltaic cells, 66 quantum mechanics, 66 reflector, 140 SEGS (Solar Energy Generating Systems), 71 semiconductor, 66 silicon, 66 solar cell, 66, 129, 137 solar constant, 65 solar module, 69 solar panel, 28, 69, 74, 129, 137 176 solar PV array, 69 Stirling engine, 72 technologies, 65 tracking, 140 vehicles, 136 solar system, 45, 74 solvation, 97 solvent, 97 Sonoran, 72 sound, 59 space, 43 space debris, 47 Spain, 60, 74 speed, 49 Sputnik, 141 Stal Laval, 85 state-of-the-art, 123 statistics, 20, 119 steam, 89 Stewardship, stiffness, 91 stored energy, 82 base load, 82, 84 flywheel, 123 massive storage, 81, 82 mechanisms, 93 mediating technology, 81 storage systems, 140 storm, 58 Strait of Messina, 64 Strangford Narrows, 64 stratosphere, 13 stream-lining, 54 students, 19, 31, 139 sub-station, 41 sub-tropical, 52 suburbia, 129 Suez Canal, 141 sulphate aerosols, 13 sulphur, 100 summit, 15 sun, 2, 45, 46 sunlight, 13, 28, 68, 77 superconduction coil, 112, 113 energy storage, 113 forces, 113 materials, 112, 113 refrigeration, 114 solenoid, 113 temperature, 112 torus, 113 tunnel, 114 Index superconductor, 91 metal, 112 supermarkets, 11 surf, 58 sustainability, 138 sustainable, 8, 12, 17, 47, 80, 99, 103, 116, 118, 126, 137, 141 Sweden, 10 Switzerland, 75, 83, 89, 127 synchronisation, 41 T Techno-fix, 13 technology, 12, 84, 86, 88, 94, 97, 103, 108, 113 television, 13, 19, 20, 23, 30 Teller, Edward, 128 temperature, 47, 114 degrees, 36 Ter-Gazarian, A., 119 terminal, 41, 98, 107, 143 Thar, 72 thermal storage, 93 containment, 95 latent, 93, 94, 95 materials, 94 sensible, 93 thermodynamics, 6, 8, 24, 36, 37, 86, 112 entropy, 25 first law, 24 second law, 25, 36, 37, 46, 66, 98 specific heat, 38, 93, 94 thermal conductivity, 38 thermal efficiency, 36 thermal expansion, 3, 72 thermal limit, 38, 40 thin film, 137 Third Reich, 141 threshold, 15, 112 thyroid, 116 Tickell, Oliver, 14, 16, 142, 143 tidal power, 13 artificial lagoon, 59 ebb flow, 63 estuary, 63 firth, 62 flood tide, 63 full-moon, 46 neap tide, 62, 63 new-moon, 46 sites, 65, 78 Index spring tides, 62 tidal flows, 62 tidal range, 63 tidal variation, 46 timescale, 48 tin, 112 titanium, 103, 113 townscape, 136 transition, 85, 138, 139, 144 transmission HVDC, 73 loss compensation, 73 underground, 39, 73 undersea, 39, 73 transport, 106 air travel, 132 airship, 136 BAU scenario, 131 car, 131 city cars, 136 consumption, 131 emissions, 133 infrastructure, 130, 131 jet, 131 local, 136 private car, 131 regional, 136 ships, 134, 136 systems, 131 taxis, 136 trains, 134 trams, 132, 134, 136 trolley buses, 132, 134, 136 travelogues, 10 tropical, 2, 52 troposphere, 46, 103 trough, 40, 58, 70, 86 tungsten, 104 tunnel, 114 U uhf (ultra high frequency), 30 UK, 77, 89, 99, 100 Ukraine, 116 unidirectional, 59 United Nations, 139 university, 8, 89, 135 Uranium, 117 USA, 2, 5, 8, 20, 42, 50, 51, 57, 64, 65, 85, 87, 100, 102, 114, 116, 127 Utopian, Uyghurs, 73 177 V vacuum, 24, 29, 112, 114 vanadium, 101 vaporisation, 94 vegetation, 52 vehicle, 140 velocity, 24, 49, 58 virtual cocoon, 135 virtual reality, 135 cities, 136 headset, 136 holiday, 136 tourism, 136 virtual world, 135 viscous, 47 vlf (very low frequency), 30 voltage, 29 voter, 144 W Waitemata, 65 wastage, 44, 53, 83, 120 watch, 129 water, 109 water wheel, 40 watt, 25 wave power, 57, 61, 78, 137 attenuators, 59 Cockerel raft, 59 crest, 58 deep ocean, 126, 143 deep sea, 57, 61 ear trumpet, 59 fetch, 57 fjord, 59 floating unit, 59 floats, 61 group velocity, 58 hinged joints, 61 horn, 59 impoundment pond, 62 inhospitable, 57 lagoon, 59 oscillating, 59 OWC (oscillating water column), 59, 60, 61 OWC chamber, 60 Pelamis, 61 pond, 59 pulse, 58 pump, 60, 61 178 ramp, 59 Salter duck, 59 secondary waves, 62 snake, 61 surface waves, 46, 57 terminators, 59 tethered, 61 throat, 59 water column, 51, 60 Wave Dragon, 59 wave energy, 58, 137 wavelength, 30, 41, 57, 58 wealth, weather, hurricane, 2, thunderstorm, 28 wilderness, Wilhelmsen, Wallenius, 137 wind farm, 12, 120 wind power deep sea, 56, 126, 143 drag, 54 farm, 140 feathered blades, 54 gear train, 54, 140 horizontal axis, 53, 71 laminar flow, 53 land area, 79 lift force, 54 nacelle, 55 pitch control, 54 prevailing winds, 56 Index propeller, 49, 53, 54, 55, 64, 137 reaction lift, 54 sails, 53, 54 statistics, 56 swept area, 53, 55 turbine, 49, 54 turbine blade, 48, 49, 53, 54, 64 turbine forest, 12 turbulence, 49, 55, 63 vertical axis, 50, 53 wind, 53, 54, 56, 78 wind farms, 55 wind machine, 53, 54, 57 windmill, 54 wing, 54 wood epoxy, 54 winding, 32, 33, 35, 69 Wisconsin, 114 world, 137 world Energy, 52, 56, 65 world war, 14 WORLD3, 144 Y York, University of, 135 Yverdon, 89 Z Zero Carbon Britain, zero-emissions, 104 zinc, 100 ... especially apposite in relation to the older industrialised nations in North America and Europe, and for nations such as Japan, Australia and New Zealand To avoid an engineering skills dearth... find that hydro-electric dams are worthy of their attention It is probably fair to say that the best dams have a rugged beauty and a grandeur which makes them aesthetically appealing, and in... was apparently the hottest in Europe since 1500, but it was also a year of severe hurricanes Causal connections between climate change, particularly global warming, and hurricanes have been a