Thursday, 3 April 2008
General Interest Seminar
What do the fundamental limits of physics say about sustainable energy? The British Isles, we often hear, have ‘huge’ renewable resources - but we need to know how this ‘huge’ source compares with another ‘huge’: our huge power consumption. The public discussion of energy policy needs numbers, not adjectives.
Assuming no economic constraints, assuming we cover the country with windmills and the coast with wave-machines, every roof with solar panels and every field with energy crops, could Britain get enough power from renewables to continue with our current consumption?