The Renewable Revolution
Rating: 
Sajad Kamal. 2011. The Renewable Revolution. Earthscan. ISBN 978 1 84971 195 1.
It must be admitted that any text with a sub-title like ‘how we can fight climate change, prevent energy wars, revitalise the economy and transition to a sustainable future’ is going to have an uphill battle convincing many readers that it’s a serious text. However, these are difficult times and although the signs of climate change etc. were seen by many scientists over 30 years ago (and were in school syllabuses in the 1970s) there is still so much to do in the way of getting any traction under these topics – so perhaps something as eye-catching as the front cover might well be needed.
Beneath the bright colours, what’s at the heart of the book? It’s a relatively slender tome who focus, judging by the chapter titles is clearly on energy. Its premise is sound – we are using renewable resources with proven disbenefits too fast and alternatives are able to take their place (although that last point would probably get a fair measure of debate going. The preface tries to set the scene and in doing so you get drawn back to the debates of the first Stockholm Conference in 1972 – that the world is running out of resources and that it requires an immediate change to sustainable development. Many years have gone and the situation is still here with little movement.
The opening chapter is just a few pages to highlight the role of the sun in our energy systems. Chapter two is a very good primer for most of the common solar energy topics although the slant is definitely on smaller-scale options with industrial plans like solar furnaces not mentioned. This is teamed up with chapter three which takes the phrase ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ literally, with the entire chapter devoted to images and captions. If the aim is to show that it can be done; and that globally, then it succeeds. The author then turns to questions of cost. This has been a fundamental point ever since renewables were unfavourably forced to compete against conventional electricity in the 1980s. Fortunately, science is now firmly of the renewables side because costs are comparable. The chapter does take alternative paths and tends to skate over some of the real difficulties but the key ideas are there. In some ways this is just a look at possibilities; we need to move on to see where this has actually happened. Chapter five takes some of the rhetoric and shows what can be done. In some ways, the opening quotes form the chapter sum it up nicely – we need to move and there are options. What we see from this point on, are the options that have been used around the world and which are eminently do-able right now – solar panels, energy credits, energy-efficient public buildings show what can be achieved.
This is more of a polemic than a text on energy sources. It does not attempt to look into the genuine issues surrounding the roll-out of these technologies but then it wasn’t meant to be. It was aimed at stirring people to realise that there is much that can be done to reduce energy use (although, sadly, insulation doesn’t get a mention – it’s production rather than reduction that’s in sight); to showing people to is already possible and suggesting, once again, that we need to change. The trick is not to point out the car is running away; the need is to find the handbrake!
