Energy Myths and Realities: Bringing Science to the Energy Policy Debate

A well-reasoned and dispassionate analysis of available energy resources. Refreshing to see an important subject discussed intelligently with good documentation. I'm going to search out some of his other work.

For the data enthusiast, Smil is an excellent read. Incredibly thorough (to a fault) in his analysis, Smil pulls no punches when discussing energy issues. He is a realist and pragmatist and anyone involved or interested in the alternative energy or electric car field would do well from his study to understand the real debates. What Smil does not do though is discuss the potential impact of increased demand for fossil fuel alternatives on the rate of technological change to accomplish this (he has underestimated the trajectory of this rate) and the politics of fossil fuel supply or impact on the politics of the major fossil fuel producers such as Saudi Arabia's more recent commitment to designing a $2 trillion 'post fossil fuel' future. Pair this book with Smil's 'Power Density' for perhaps the most technical analyses on the topic.

This book gets to the point about what works and does not. I personally hold dreams of grandeur as they pertain toalternative energy, and I am in constant need of a rational and reasoned approach to the needs humanity has for future energy production. This book had a grounding effect on me.

I chose this book because it is in Bill Gates 's list n had a good review therefore I had a relatively high expectation.The first part about the end of fossil fuel is rather boring as it is full of other scientists previous forecast n prediction. As with all forecasts there is always margins of errors. Smil dismissed them as incorrect with the benefit of hind sight. It is not all too convincing.The part about corn n cane ethanol starts to get interesting n my pace was much faster. However, he should have discuss the distorted economics of corn as fuel and corn as food to arrive at the conclusion that corn should be used as food rather than fuel. The part on wind energy was also good. He mentioned that wind can only work with good transmission network.Smil seems to support nuclear energy but he did not have the benefit of the knowledge of the Japanese nuclear plant failure at the time of writing the book.In sum, the good part n bad part even out each other. I give it a 3 star.

...and, for all the starry-eyed "greenies" and their "climate denier" counter-parts. Debunks the myths, and topples more than a few self-styled icons, while letting the data form the facts. Wishful thinking should have no part in the energy discussions, and policies which will emerge from those dialogues. Smil is the consummate "myth buster" and is not friends with either camp in the contentious arguments.

Yet another book, Energy Myths & Realities, by Vaclav Smil, I now read all of them, he is like an international resource, explaining what we take for granted. We ride so comfortably we don't notice the wheels others have made so that we roll on.Smil is skeptical of new developments, often they are fads. He explains the wonders of today's world why gasoline, diesel oil and coal are wonderful why we are unlikely to replace them anytime soon. We already voted for all this with our money so lets grow up and be happy with our accomplishments.Smil subtitles his book "bringing science to the energy policy debate' but he also quotes at the start the Roman playwright terence "Men believe what they want to"Things just don't make sense. Watch Smil dive in to smite idiocy after idiocy. But there is an idiocy that he never touches which I will try to explain. Solar energy is held out as a great hope by some but measured and counted all wrong.Men are so enchanted by their fuels and the machines that burn them that they ignore uses of the sun which do not closely imitate the machines. Even Smil fails to add the energy from men eating food that power their foot travel, constructions, procreation and thinking. This habit of ignoring the obvious he extends to ignoring windows, skylights, clotheslines, indeed all of daylight which most of us use to our advantage. To add to the list consider travel where we generally follow the lead of birds flying from the too cold to the temperate.There is a vast puzzle to explore here, puny man a tiny electrically obsessed dwarf set in an immense solar powered backdrop.Steve Baer

An outstandingly detailed and clear discussion of energy, it's future sources, and the realities of how hard it is to accomplish change.

I used the this book as a "textbook" in an undergraduate seminar on renewable energy and global sustainability. Yes, it is "contrarian" and somewhat gloomy, but it is an excellent discussion starter and a good counterpart to the other textbook I used. The students very much appreciated this book: sometimes they agreed with the author, sometimes they disagreed or came to different conclusions, but that is what you want in a seminar. The reason this book does not get five points is that sometimes I feel the author discards a certain solution because it is not *the* solution, i.e., the main reason against a certain technology is that it cannot solve all problems (as opposed to what proponents proclaim). But it does not have to be *the* solution, it just needs to be good piece of the puzzle. I wish the author would have emphasized that point, but it turns out the students discovered it themselves.

Although at the time of publishing I'm sure this would've been a compelling read, the data is old. The author freely admits predictions in this field are notoriously difficult and this work proves his point.However, the history of mankind's energy use as presented in this book is well researched and still noteworthy.

Smil is a practical thinker and tries to offer a more realistic viewpoint on energy transition. While he supports clean energy, he argues that just like dependency on fossil fuels, it will be shaped in long time periods, require financing, large supporting infrastructure and improvements of reliability over time. Only then comes massive adoption.

O livro traz uma explanacao com Conceitos interessantes, mas argumentação superficial...falta trazer mais dados concretos às justificativas....mas é um contraponto interessante à corrente de sustentabilidade que tem prevalecido e por isto se torna uma útil leitura

Smil has strong opinions on the impracticality of anything but continued large-scale consumption of fossil fuels. He is right, no doubt, to dismiss the many Pollyanna-ish assumptions that the world can be greened tomorrow. But the book is of little use to anyone who wishes to do anything more than just throw up their hands and carry on getting rich while killing the planet.

Interessting book if you know nothing about energy production. The problem of this book is the Smil only talk about the energy production. He don't want to talk about all the political implication that energy have. He don't speak about the reduction of energy!!! He don't speak about the rebound effect! He don't speak about how to produce more green energy (because they need Rare earth element: how are we gonna produce more and more solar and wind energy if there is not enough materiel to produce them). He only talks about the rational aspect of producing enery without considering all the facts about energy. He says nuclear energy is good and efficient, but he don't talk about nuclear pollution, storage problems and all the facts about nuclear energy.His vision is way too technical and ignores a lot af thing (political, economical, process to make and dismantel the producer of energy...). Talk about energy reduction thaht is the most rational choice if you really studie energy, but he don't say a word about that