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DonHopkins

The late David MacKay's book "Sustainable Energy - without the hot air" is available free online:

http://www.withouthotair.com/

Here's the chapter about solar energy:

http://www.withouthotair.com/c6/page_38.shtml

Here's a 100 word synopsis he wrote for his talk to the House of Lords:

http://www.inference.org.uk/sustainable/book/SUMMARY

David MacKay also invented the Dasher text input system:

http://www.inference.org.uk/dasher/

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Very good book but tech went lot further than David expected in many places (ie. solar power efficiency vs price).

This page tried to keep it updated:

https://www.carboncommentary.com/blog/2017/3/30/l6qcqgoedse1...

Thanks -- that's a pleasant surprise (both that technology has advanced further than he expected, and that people are keeping his book up to date)!

Amazingly, LCOE prices of utility size PVs have dropped another 30% - 40% just since this update alone.

And this is not some cherry picking. 2-3c/kwh in the US, India, Chile, Middle East, etc..

David MacKay has done some great work, but I feel I need to present some of the criticism he has received, for balance. In particular, there is a perception that he is biased towards nuclear energy (understating its drawbacks, while also being unnecessarily dismissive of renewables).

People can consider these articles for themselves:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/professor-david-mackay-br...

"Professor David MacKay: Britain ‘must go nuclear’ to control climate"

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/03/idea-of-...

"Idea of renewables powering UK is an 'appalling delusion' – David MacKay"

The latter, from 2016, includes the line:

"There is this appalling delusion that people have that we can take this thing that is currently producing 1% of our electricity and we can just scale it up..."

For reference, according to:

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/wind-solar-overtak...

"Renewables’ share of electricity generation shot up to 29 per cent, while nuclear sources accounted for around 21 per cent."

I think when he was writing, solar wasn't competitive, and neither really was wind. With that in mind nuclear had a place in zero carbon fuel mix, we should perhaps be thankful that other renewables have made such amazing strides.

He isn't around anymore to update his book, but I'm not sure it matters. For me anyway, it was the approach not the specifics that mattered.

Id rather be reading MacKay's 10 year old book for advice rather than those people who think banning straws is going to save the world.

straw man argument

I see what you did there ;)

The book was a great (and depressing) read 10 years ago.

Today, it is completely out of date on PV, wind. Fingers crossed for same progress on storage & EVs.

Throw in bio-fuels for aviation, and maybe hydrogen for marine and heavy transport, and civilization may yet survive /s

...Here's a _1000_ word synopsis he wrote ...

FTFY

Thank you. I found Dasher a long time ago (feels like a decade) but lost the link. Have been thinking about it often since. Finally, thanks to you I once again have it available

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