Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era

The book is not perfect, but its scale and the amount of work that went into it is incredible. There are over 750 references and the bibliography represents a lifetime of energy reading and research.The book provides an optimist's vision of American and global energy generation and energy efficiency strategies leading to an ideal mix by 2050. Lovins lays out the big picture of how this is possible, economically advantageous, and even probable. Best of all, Lovins stays apolitical - my favorite quote is "we just need to stop insisting that others embrace our differing why and together get on with doing the shared what." He stays positive throughout and insists that reducing CO2 emissions (through efficiency and smarter fuels/grids) and increasing the use of renewables is good business for America and the developing world. I hope he's right.Lovins picks winners though, he clearly is not a believer in nuclear power's usefulness and lays out a compelling case for his position. He also incorporates biofuels into his vision without making a solid case for how. Lovins also takes some creative liberties in applying the costs of hidden subsidies to fossil fuels - suggesting that the entire bill for CENTCOM and all conflicts in the Middle East should be added to the price of oil.The book is sometimes hard to follow with sidebars and graphics interrupting the flow. There's also a fair amount of redundancy - some of the graphics make multiple appearances and Lovins tend to drive an idea home by repeating it over and over again. I found myself zoning out and having to repeat sections often.Overall it's an incredible book, I would recommend it to anyone interested in the future of energy.

Amory Lovins is a remarkable guy. Lovins became interested in energy policy about four decades ago, when he was the youngest Oxford Don in several centuries. Today, he is a widely recognized global authority on energy as it relates to the economy, national security, development and the environment. He actively pursues that interest as lead scientist at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a "think-and-do tank". Lovins' extraordinary new book, Reinventing Fire, brings fresh and much needed actionable insight to an important and timely subject.To refer to Reinventing Fire as a "book" is understatement. More correctly, it is a comprehensive, extensively documented, peer reviewed research document which provides a visionary national energy strategy, presented in a quite readable format suitable for anyone from undergraduate to global business or political leader.Succinctly, Reinventing Fire insists that the United States can realistically stop using coal and petroleum as fuel by the year 2050, by transition to efficient energy utilization and by substitution of renewable energy sources, even as the U.S. economy continues to grow at presently projected rates. Further, Reinventing Fire demonstrates that this can be done by business, using currently available technologies, employed at normal rates of financial return. Government could help through policy shifts that relieve some of the existing barriers to implementing innovations. Beyond that, no Acts of Congress are required, no new energy or carbon taxes or subsidies are needed. Instead, the projected net cost for pursuing this course over four decades is $5 trillion (in 2010 net present value) less than the cost of continuing on our current path!Reinventing Fire focuses on the four sections of the economy that consume the great bulk of the fossil fuel: industry, transportation, buildings and electric power generation. The book projects industrial energy consumption reductions of almost 50% (44.4 quads in 2010, down to 22.3 quads in 2050, where a quad = Quadrillion BTUs/year), while industrial output increases by 84% during the same period.This is not smoke and mirrors. The `how to" is spelled out in a thoroughly transparent manner. The detail available is voluminous, mostly through hundreds of credible references. Beyond the book, even more information is available on a dedicated website.

I have been a huge fan of Amory Lovins for decades going back to about 1976 (The Road Less Traveled) and his all time best book pertaining to energy security (with L. Hunter Lovins) Brittle Power in 1982. Reinventing Fire takes up where Brittle Power and some other works left off and presents four scenarios for consideration of just where we ought/need to go and, maybe more importantly, how we get there and where "there" will be.At the same time, it does present a bit of confusion on keeping the scenarios straight as parts of them can conflict with each other and even with the basic tenets of Brittle Power. On the one hand, harnessing large wind farms, on shore or offshore, can be very advantageous BUT on the other hand long runs of transmission are not only very expensive (and the money might be used for more local renewable generation) but if they go hundred if not thousands of miles, they are prone to not just some line losses (even using HVDC) but also any number of threats which would leave those on the distant receiving end possibly in a dire circumstances. How do we reconcile this?I do not have a good answer but Amory has always been the chief advocate for distributed power systems BUT in Reinventing Fire, some of the scenarios makes a case for this large offshore wind to supply a significant portion of load. This seems in conflict with his distributed generation position requiring short links. Additionally, in other portions of the book, he also advocates SmartGrid technology which makes lightning fast decisions without user input. Many in the cybersecurity realm would voice objection to more SmartGrid as it would increase vulnerabilities by expanding the attack surfaces. All his previous works talk about eliminating cascading failures by maintaining a high degree of user controllability. These need to be reconciled. Granted we do not live in a perfect world where all requirements for secure systems can be economically realized but more thought needs to be put into the more near term cyber threats and not just into the totally game changing climate threats. STILL, this is a book totally worth reading and in the future I look forward to one that adds additional scenarios.

Analiza diferentes soluciones energéticas con las tecnologías actualmente disponibles. En algunos casos quizá sea excesivamente optimista, pero con los pies en la tierra

Mi è piaciuta l'economicità della versione con la copertina rigida. Ottima come sempre la spedizione in tempi brevi, se non fosse che il servizio di poste italiane sia scadente

This book lays-out a roadmap for increasing energy efficiency in every sector, be it for mobility, households, and industry. It presents a compelling case to get us almost completely off fossil fuels by 2050 and all for profit. The economic costs of not doing-so far outweight the benefits of doing so (several trillions in opportunity cost in the US alone over the next 40 years). Most importantly, the case and methods for increasing energy efficiency made in this book are not ideological (i.e., substituting one's favourite technology for non-profit reasons). Rather, they are for purely economic reasons.Therefore, whether one believes in climate change or not doesn't matter. The economic arguments for increasing energy efficiency and the solutions to get there are thoroughly presented in this book and hold their own on a purely cost/benefit basis discounted to today's prices and only using today's already existing technologies. I re-iterate, although external costs (e.g., climate, pollution, health care, lobbying, etc...) clearly do exist and although future innovations in technology will undoubtedly occur, these are not quantified in making the economic arguments in this book. The path is clear.Finally, I also found it refreshing that the book was peer-reviewed by politicians and civil servants from both sides of the political spectrum as well as leaders of industry, and for profit. The solutions for energy efficiency represent great opportunities for entrepreneurs, businesses, investors, and individuals alike.Hopefully this book will make its way to as many entrepreneurs, policy-makers, and business leaders as possible. We can all benefit from it and at the end of the day, make the World a much better place.

As described at a good price and just fine and dandy and its silly you are forced to use more words!

Amory Lovins hat Jahre an diesem Werk gearbeitet - und die gesammelten Erfahrungen aus Jahrzehnten Aktivität des Rocky Mountain Institute einfließen lassen.Das Buch zeigt, wie sich die Menschheit aus der Abhängigkeit von fossilen Energieträgern befreien kann - und dabei auch noch ordentlich "Geschäfte machen" kann. Ohne das große Geschäfte machen geht es offenbar in US nicht - ein Ansatz, über den sich die meisten im Land dort wohl auch einig sind, eine der wenigen einenden Bekenntnisse. Wenn auch auf diesem Weg ein wenig Vernunft transportierbar ist, warum eigentlich nicht?Amory Lovins ist gegenüber seinem Basiswerk ("Sanfte Energie") deutlich moderater in den Ansätzen geworden. Alles, was hier vorgeschlagen wird, ist 100% System-konform. Doch das reicht immer noch, um uns aus dem Teufelskreis von Erderwärmung, steigenden Katastrophenschäden und teuren Reparatur-Kosten (mit abermals erhöhtem CO2-Ausstoß) heraus zu bringen.Freilich, ganz einfach wird es dennoch nicht sein, diejenigen, die bisher am Status quo verdienen, zu überzeugen. Amory Lovins hat das nicht auf gegeben. Und in der Tat: Der Umstellungsprozess dauert letztendlich Jahrzehnte; genügend Zeit, um auch den hart gesottensten Kapitaleignern der Kohlenstoff-Energiewirtschaft den Umstieg zu ermöglichen.Aus Europäischer Perspektive ist dieses Buch auch eine wichtige Information: Auch in den USA gibt es vernunftbegabte Kräfte; in vielen Punkten ist die Europäische Realität jedoch der Vision von Amory Lovins bereits voraus: So bei der Netzeinspeisung Erneuerbarer Energie und bei der European Building Performance Directive (EBPD).Das Buch: Lesenswert, empfehlenswert, voller hochverdichteter Information.