Book Blog
Excerpts from the book ‘CLIMATE CHANGE and the road to NET-ZERO’ covering the science, technology, economics, and politics of climate change.
by Mathew Hampshire-Waugh
Long-Term Energy Storage in a Net-Zero Future
The technologies which enable long-term energy storage - from heat, to pumping water to manufacturing hydrogen. How will long term storage work and what will it cost?
Short-Term Energy Storage in a Net-Zero Future
Why Lithium-ion batteries and pumped hydro are the leading candidates for short duration grid energy storage. And why renewables electricity generation plus storage will be cheaper than fossil fuel electricity in a Net-Zero future.
Net-Zero and the role of Energy Storage
From short-term energy storage to seasonal energy storage - how do we balance supply and demand in a Net-Zero future. Pumped Hydro, Batteries, Compressed Air, Gravity, Demand Response, Hydrogen and e-Fuels: the technology ready to take on the energy storage challenge.
The Limits of Carbon Capture for Energy
Why carbon capture technology could prove useful in reaching net-zero but limitations on distribution, storage, and costs mean that it will likely be limited to less than 10% of emissions and should be reserved for hard-to-abate areas of the economy like cement, chemicals, and fertilisers.
Energy Supply Options for a Net-Zero Future
From fossil fuels, to nuclear, to renewables - how do we choose the energy mix for a sustainable future with safe, reliable, low-cost, and zero-carbon energy?
Understanding Energy
Why the sun provides enough energy to power the economy 7,000 times over. And how burning coal, oil, and gas over the last 200 years has provided the surplus energy, knowledge, and innovation required to unleash the net-zero technologies for a sustainable future.
How much will zero carbon energy cost?
Net-Zero is about technology not geology. Learning curves describe the rate at which the cost of modular technologies decline with scale (not time) and point to wind and solar becoming by far the cheapest form of electricity generation once fully scaled.
Energy Supply and Remaining Resources
A brief history of shale gas, fracking, and the quest for ever greater quantities of cheap energy. Calculating the remaining resources of oil, gas, coal, and uranium. And the abundant materials available to build solar panels and wind turbines for a sustainable energy future.
Energy Supply and Lifecycle Emissions
Why the total lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, and geothermal are at least ten times lower than fossil fuels. How natural gas emissions can be just as bad as coal. And why biofuels are not as low-carbon as you might assume.
Energy Supply, Power Density, and Land Use
Comparing the power density of fossil fuel, nuclear, and renewable energy generation. Why wind and solar could power the planet using just 1% of Earth’s dryland.
The Rate of Learning and the Cost of Net-Zero
Why integrated assessment models underestimate the power of the experience curve and overestimate the cost of reaching net -zero. And how wind, solar, and batteries will help deliver a cheaper energy system.
Energy Supply and Safety
Why nuclear is (and isn’t) the safest form of energy. And why the worst energy disaster in history killed just 3% of the number of people who lose their lives from air pollution every year.