Bill Gates reviews Vaclav Smil’s Energy Transitions
Increased energy demand worldwide, growing concern over fossil fuel emissions: what comes next? Bill Gates reviews Vaclav Smil’s latest.
In Energy Transitions, Smil explains the third great energy transition, which occurred over the last several hundred years and included the shift from wood to coal, and the rise of oil and natural gas. As he notes, this transition from biomass to fossil fuels “has been the very essence of modernization.” The first great energy transition was the mastery of fire and the second was associated with the move from foraging to sedentary crop raising and domestication of animals. This third transition really only got going in the late 19th century and did not affect most of humanity until well into the 20th century.
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For each fuel type and each big application Smil explains the key breakthroughs. For natural gas it included new steel alloys, better welding, better pipe-laying, and new compressors invented after World War II. Smil points out that the time between the invention of a new energy technology and its widespread use is usually many decades. In the case of liquefied natural gas, for example, it was almost 100 years.
thegatesnotes.com
See also:
Energy Myths and Realities: Bringing Science to the Energy Policy Debate
amazon.com
