Energy in Nature and Society
by Vaclav Smil · first published 2007
5mentions
1recommended by
2HN commenters
2021–2022first – last mentioned
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+1 for Wallace. Basically everything in that collection and Consider the Lobster is worth reading. Absolutely unrelated, but I'd recommend Vaclav Smil in general - Energy in Nature and Society and Energy and Civilization are two I've read and enjoyed. A bit dry as reading material, but well-worth for his energetic perspective on human and biological systems.
on “Ask HN: What are some must read books?” ↗…doubled with China's sudden rise. We'll probably want 50% - 100% more by 2050 as India and Nigeria develop. 0.2 TW continuous per year (the optimistic figure) growth in solar is not fast enough, IMHO. 1. Energy in Nature and Society, Smil V.
on “1 TW of solar to be deployed annually by 2030” ↗…the PDF right, it uses about 12 PJ per tonne of iron produced. Best current practice with coking coal is about 15 GJ per tonne.[1] So just a little energy efficiency improvement required. 1. Smil, V. Energy In Nature And Society 2008, p. 283 of paperback.
on “Sweden delivered the world’s first fossil fuel-free steel” ↗…milk, red meat and a few other low-value-add bio-materials in order to buy everything else. Land is valuable to the country as a whole for its export revenue. I had also been re-reading Vaclav Smil's Energy in Nature and Society, in which he says the areal (per square meter) power intensity of PV production is approximately the same as the areal power consumption of cities, so we need the same order of magnitude of land that…
on “Why is the nuclear power industry stagnant?” ↗Yeah, my unit of analysis is the decade, sorry. Been reading Vaclav Smil too much (Energy in Nature and Society; Grand Transitions). There was a news item on the BBC recently about battery swap being used by taxi firms in "second tier" Chinese cities (so, only 5M - 15M inhabitants). That's how it starts: large…
on “The Chevy Bolt's sales prove America is craving a cheap electric car” ↗