Sustainable Energy — Without the Hot Air

By David MacKay FRS

Welcome to the official resource for a book dedicated to stripping away the rhetoric "hot air" and focusing on the hard physics of energy.

🚀 Get Your Copy

Depending on your preference, you can access the material in several ways:

• Purchase a physical paper copy.
• download_pdf() for free.
• Explore various translations.
• Navigate the book via the online table of contents.

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🌟 Critical Acclaim

The book has been praised by experts and journalists alike for its rigorous approach to energy policy:

"For anyone with influence on energy policy, whether in government, business or a campaign group, this book should be compulsory reading." — Tony Juniper

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🗺️ Book Architecture

The text is structured to move from raw data to actionable plans, and finally to deep technical proofs.

Part I: Numbers, not adjectives

Focusing on the quantitative reality of energy.

1. Motivations
2. The balance sheet
3. Cars
4. Wind
5. Planes
6. Solar
7. Heating and cooling
8. Hydroelectricity
9. Light
10. Offshore wind
11. Gadgets
12. Wave
13. Food and farming
14. Tide
15. Stuff
16. Geothermal
17. Public services
18. Can we live on renewables?

Part II: Making a difference

Applying the data to create real-world impact.

• 19 Every BIG helps
• 20 Better transport
• 21 Smarter heating
• 22 Efficient electricity use
• 23 Sustainable fossil fuels?
• 26 Fluctuations and storage
• 27 Five energy plans for Britain
• 28 Putting costs in perspective
• 29 What to do now
• 30 Energy plans for Europe, America, and the World
• 31 The last thing we should talk about
• 32 Saying yes

Part III: Technical chapters

Deep dives into the physics and math (Appendices A-H): Cars II $\rightarrow$ Wind II $\rightarrow$ Planes II $\rightarrow$ Solar II $\rightarrow$ Heating II $\rightarrow$ Waves II $\rightarrow$ Tide II $\rightarrow$ Stuff II

Part IV: Useful data

• I: Quick reference
• J: Populations and areas
• K: UK energy history
• Additional Resources: Power and carbon translation tables, Bibliography, and Index.

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🧮 The Core Philosophy

The book operates on the principle that energy discussions should be based on mathematics rather than adjectives. For example, calculating total energy needs involves:

$E = P \times t$

Where $E$ is energy, $P$ is power, and $t$ is time.

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