Title: Sustainable Energy - without the hot air
ISBN: ISBN 978-0-9544529-3-3
Author: David JC MacKay, Professor of Natural Philosophy, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge
Published: 2008-12-02 (latest edition)
Availability: Downloadable, from withouthotair.com
Distribution: Creative Commons, Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales
Summary: In this work Prof. MacKay uses simple numbers to add up the energy needs of the United Kingdom, comparing energy production and energy usage. He lets easy-to-understand numbers speak for themselves, and tell that renewables such as wind and photovoltiacs, even if we cover as much as 10% of the UK with wind farms, plus all the house roofs with photovoltiacs, it will still not be enough. He also devotes an entire chapter to nuclear fission and nuclear fusion where his numbers speak clearly in favour of using nuclear power. He concludes that "Please don’t get me wrong: I’m not trying to be pro-nuclear. I’m just pro-arithmetic".
Reference code: David J.C. MacKay. Sustainable Energy – without the hot air. UIT Cambridge, 2008. ISBN 978-0-9544529-3-3. Available free online from http://www.withouthotair.com.
/Michael