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Ask HN: Book recommendations for renewable energy and climate change?

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11–20 of 32 posts

Re: Ask HN: Book recommendations for renewable energy and climate change?

#11
If you speak spanish there's a really good book doing now the rounds by an skeptic of the long-term economical viability of renewables (and fossil fuels, nuclear, and more): Petrocalipsis, by Antonio Turiel. It's very clear, concise and data-driven, so it's one of those books where even when you disagree with a point it forces you to research why.

An ok alternative in english would be Facing the Anthropocene, by Ian Angus (but the scope of that book is way more limited, and it's markedly political, specifically ecosocialist)

Re: Ask HN: Book recommendations for renewable energy and climate change?

#15
post #7

Sustainable Energy – without the hot air, by David J. C. MacKay.

While certainly a classic and highly influential book in the field, be aware that it is very out of date and based on 15+ year old data. This means that most of the conclusions the book comes too are no longer necessarily relevant or correct. So read it more as a historical snapshot of the thinking of the time as opposed to a guide to relevant energy policies in todays climate.

Re: Ask HN: Book recommendations for renewable energy and climate change?

#16

Bill Gates “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need”.

https://m.dw.com/en/scientists-pour-cold-water-on-bill-gates...

His huge investment in modular nuclear reactors may not be all it's cracked up to be.

Re: Ask HN: Book recommendations for renewable energy and climate change?

#17
The expensive _Managing Global Warming_ is useful because it has chapters on various renewable energy and related topics, each one written by some kine of specialist in that field, and will bring you up to date as of 2018. There may be better such books, but I’m biased because I wrote the solar energy chapter:

https://www.elsevier.com/books/managing-global-warming/letch...

Re: Ask HN: Book recommendations for renewable energy and climate change?

#20

David MacKay's Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air

This is really outdated, so unless you want to marvel at how wrong even a smart and well-meaning person could be in the face of rapid technological change, probably not worth revisiting. There's been a few attempts to update it with modern numbers but they're so different it effectively nullifies the whole point of the book.

I've google a bit but couldn't find anything but universal appraisal for the book. Would you mind elaborating on which numbers changed and how did it nullify the whole point?
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