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Comment on Powering the Future: A Scientist’s Guide to Energy Independence (FT Press Science) by Charlie Sansone

Charlie Sansone — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:42:06 +0000

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Vital book for All to Read, October 13, 2010

This review is from: Powering the Future: A Scientist's Guide to Energy Independence (FT Press Science) (Hardcover)

Dr. Daniel Botkin's Powering the Future: A Scientist's Guide to Energy Independence, is must reading. If we are to avoid massive blackouts, such as the one so vividly described in the opening pages of this terrific book, we'd better get serious about finding and developing new sources of energy. It takes time to bring new sources on line SAFELY. History tells us we first must have an informed public. Botkin's book does this. It succinctly documents the pros and cons of all presently available sources of energy. The hazards likely to be encountered with each are noted, as well as steps that might prevent disaster. The closing pages cite alternative scenarios to ponder.

This little green book, I believe, should be present in multiply copies in every secondary-school social studies and science classroom AND at least one copy in every Public Library. It is a terrific source book. Our daily media tell of numerous events not unlike the national blackout that Dr. Botkin describes so well in the opening pages of Powering the Future. The massive oil spill in the Gulf; fires, death and destruction in California when a natural-gas pipeline explodes; the deaths of two young boys in Washington State attributed to an exploding natural-gas pipeline; Pennsylvania communities experiencing serious water-table contamination related to drilling for natural gas; communities opposing atomic plants . . . the tales go on.

I believe Powering the Future, has vital information that the public urgently needs as it makes decisions about America's future sources of energy.

Charlies V. Sansone - retired Secondary Educator

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Comment on Powering the Future: A Scientist’s Guide to Energy Independence (FT Press Science) by J. Crumley

J. Crumley — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:31:43 +0000

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

decent, though flawed, book, June 22, 2011

J. Crumley (MN USA) -

This review is from: Powering the Future: A Scientist's Guide to Energy Independence (FT Press Science) (Hardcover)

This is a fairly well written book, though the technical level is not what I was expecting based on the subtitle ("A Scientist Guide to Energy Independence"). The level of analysis and detail is probably appropriate for biological scientists, but will likely be found lacking by physical scientists and engineers.

The book does a good job of explaining in simple language how major energy producing technologies work. The informal, personal style of writing works well for the author. Some of the anecdotes and cases are a little weak, but that is proably difficult to help.

One oversight I saw in this book was the minimal coverage of energy storage technologies. While technologies such as fly wheels and hydroelectric energy storage are briefly mentioned in the solar energy and energy transportation chapters, I think that more emphasis should have been placed on these technologies. As we move toward a more distributed energy system, these types of technologies are going to be a key to making a stable energy distribution system.

I also agree with Tailer's review concerning the books coverage of nuclear energy. A strong bias against fission power plants was evident in this section. The most glaring signs of this bias include the author's focus on the issue of uranium availability, while not discounting the fact that fuel reprocessing and breeder reactors deal nicely with this issue. I also think that the lack of detail on reprocessing does the reader a disservice, since reprocessing of fuel greatly decreases the volume of nuclear waste.

In summary, these is a decent book for a lay audience, though it has some definite weaknesses.

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Comment on Powering the Future: A Scientist’s Guide to Energy Independence (FT Press Science) by Tailer

Tailer — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:22:48 +0000

68 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

Many flaws in his analysis, but still an informative book, July 8, 2010

Tailer (Boulder, CO) -

This review is from: Powering the Future: A Scientist's Guide to Energy Independence (FT Press Science) (Hardcover)

This book discusses each type of energy in ~25 page chapters (oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, hydro, wind, solar, biofuel, and ocean energy) that discuss their individual costs of production and environmental effects. The author then ties up all of the information to create some unrealistic conclusions.

Throughout the book he makes some personal calculations to determine facts such as power capacity or environmental costs and he often makes typos or mistakes and reports things in incorrect and or inconsistent units (he switches between million billion kilowatts to quadtrillion BTUs!). I am an engineer and might be a little scrutinizing, but the number of errors that I encountered just from simply reading it and not recalculating the numbers makes me question a lot of his conclusions on incorrect data taking or interpretation.

He is an all or nothing kind of person. With every energy he often mentions it capacity, which is really not relevant. For example with solar, he goes in depth about how much the earth is absorbing and how little we need to capture to power the world, just useless fluff in my opinion. In particular his analysis fails when he never mentions the cost of transporting electricity, and the local efficiency of wind and solar. He says that if we cover .5% of Texas with wind turbines we could power the United States, sound great right? He does not take into account how much turbines actually produce, but rather uses their capacity which only occurs during high winds. And obviously, we would never power New York with energy from Texas because of resistance in power lines and this is never addressed.

In his chapter about nuclear energy he discounts it due to cost and minimal amount of available uranium. He quickly mentions technology that will allow the fuel to last 2500 years but quickly dismisses it because of safety reasons. Although he never says it directly, we need more research into nuclear energy. Currently it is not economically feasible and we use too much uranium, but this could definitely be improved through research.

His conclusion is that we must go from all fossil fuel to completely solar and wind, but this is just impossible without other sources that are more consistent such as nuclear. I think his book is good for someone that wants a primer on the status and future of different energy sources but I think look elsewhere for solutions. But if you are free thinking and can think past his conclusions then I think that this is a good book to read and discuss.

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Comments (6)

Comment on What does DOE stand for after the salary in a job want ad? by parky

parky — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 06:56:41 +0000

depending on experience

Comment on What does DOE stand for after the salary in a job want ad? by dewcoons

dewcoons — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 06:24:14 +0000

“Depends on Experience”. Means they will negotiate with you for a salary somewhere between 25-35k.

Comment on What does DOE stand for after the salary in a job want ad? by Lance

Lance — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:59:09 +0000

Depending On Experience.

Comment on What does DOE stand for after the salary in a job want ad? by dinotheorist

dinotheorist — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:55:39 +0000

Depending On Experience

Comment on What does DOE stand for after the salary in a job want ad? by jmortiz_22

jmortiz_22 — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:27:40 +0000

Depends on experience

Comment on What does DOE stand for after the salary in a job want ad? by billo

billo — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:36:10 +0000

dept of energy
bring your radiation outfit

Comment on What does DOE stand for after the salary in a job want ad? by fizzygurrl1980

fizzygurrl1980 — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:42:50 +0000

It stands for “Depending On Experience.” For example, if it’s your first time with a job llike that, you would probably be hired at the lower end of the pay spectrum because you lack experience. However, if you’ve been doing that same type of job for like 5 years, you’d probably qualify for the higher-end salary.