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Ask HN: Book recommendations for renewable energy and climate change?
I'm trying to figure out what are the classic books and authors on the topic. There seems to be a plethora of books on climate and energy out there and every blog recommends a completely different list. As I'm not that familiar with the topic, I'm ideally looking for a book that gives an overview of the different types of energy and their practicality.
- cjmcqueen 5y agoAmory Lovin's "Reinventing Fire" is a commonly held classic. Disclosure, I work for RMI the consulting firm he founded.
- compressedgas 5y agoDavid MacKay's Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air
- ZeroGravitas 5y agoThis is really outdated, so unless you want to marvel at how wrong even a smart and well-meaning person could be in the face of rapid technological change, probably not worth revisiting. There's been a few attempts to update it with modern numbers but they're so different it effectively nullifies the whole point of the book.
- ciropantera 5y agoI've google a bit but couldn't find anything but universal appraisal for the book. Would you mind elaborating on which numbers changed and how did it nullify the whole point?
- ZeroGravitas 5y agohttps://www.carboncommentary.com/blog/2017/3/30/l6qcqgoedse1wmjjz87t09usoq6jva https://www.carboncommentary.com/blog/2017/3/30/l6qcqgoedse1...
- ciropantera 5y agoThanks for the link, interesting read
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- DougMellon 5y agohttps://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/ https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/
- ZeroGravitas 5y agoElectrify by Saul Griffith's is an up to date survey of where we are. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/electrify https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/electrify
- ComradePhil 5y agoNot really what you asked for but I think they are more important to gain perspective: The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels by Alex Epstein The Absent Superpower: The Shale Revolution and a World Without America by Peter Zeihan
- aborsy 5y agoSustainable Energy – without the hot air, by David J. C. MacKay.
- dagw 5y agoWhile certainly a classic and highly influential book in the field, be aware that it is very out of date and based on 15+ year old data. This means that most of the conclusions the book comes too are no longer necessarily relevant or correct. So read it more as a historical snapshot of the thinking of the time as opposed to a guide to relevant energy policies in todays climate.
- itzprime 5y agoEnergy Return on Investment: A Unifying Principle for Biology, Economics, and Sustainability
- Mobina 5y ago[flagged]
- theHNAcct 5y agoHow do you report spam on HN?
- agmand 5y agoIf you speak spanish there's a really good book doing now the rounds by an skeptic of the long-term economical viability of renewables (and fossil fuels, nuclear, and more): Petrocalipsis, by Antonio Turiel. It's very clear, concise and data-driven, so it's one of those books where even when you disagree with a point it forces you to research why. An ok alternative in english would be Facing the Anthropocene, by Ian Angus (but the scope of that book is way more limited, and it's markedly political, specifically ecosocialist)
- credit_guy 5y agoBill Gates “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need”.
- muldoc 5y agoIt doesn't seem smart to me to take advice from a got-lucky, business billionaire that brought us Windows, with a cult following and marketing power of a country, than any run-of-the-mill real scientist.
- pydry 5y agohttps://m.dw.com/en/scientists-pour-cold-water-on-bill-gates-nuclear-plans/a-59751405 https://m.dw.com/en/scientists-pour-cold-water-on-bill-gates... His huge investment in modular nuclear reactors may not be all it's cracked up to be.
- credit_guy 5y agoHe invests in a lot of things. The book is not about nuclear reactors.
- pydry 5y agoThe book advocates for more public investment in nuclear energy and advocates against using too much solar and wind. He is personally has many billions sunk into the nuclear startup Terrapower, which is also taking a grant of roughly $4 billion in taxpayer cash while demonstrating... mixed results at best. You dont see a potential for a slight conflict of interest with this book?
- credit_guy 5y agoMaybe 5% of the book is about nuclear power. He does not hide his positive attitude about it, or his ownership of Terrapower, but he does not sound at all gung ho. If anything he advocates more for offshore wind. But most of the book is about describing the problem, not prescribing solutions. I found it to be very informative. Personally, I was less pro-nuclear after reading the book than before.
- timst4 5y agoDrawdown
- mjklin 5y agohttps://drawdown.org/the-book https://drawdown.org/the-book
- leephillips 5y agoThe expensive _Managing Global Warming_ is useful because it has chapters on various renewable energy and related topics, each one written by some kine of specialist in that field, and will bring you up to date as of 2018. There may be better such books, but I’m biased because I wrote the solar energy chapter: https://www.elsevier.com/books/managing-global-warming/letcher/978-0-12-814104-5 https://www.elsevier.com/books/managing-global-warming/letch...