The Science of Power Generation
Power generation has a relatively short history: only for the last two centuries
have humans accorded it much thought or effort. Most of our energy sources
originate with the sun: solar and wind power, coal, oil. Nuclear power originates
from other stars. Our first source of energy, before the Stone Age, was food. We
turned this food into muscle power by metabolizing it. Then came wood, the stored
energy of which we released by burning. Then we harnessed animals and used their
muscle power. Then we invented waterwheels and windmills, to yolk the power of
flowing and falling water, and of the wind. We then exploited the chemical energy
stored in coal, then oil and gas, then the enormous reserves of energy stored in
the nuclei of certain atoms. We are now returning to wind and direct solar power.
I make the case in this book for more nuclear power stations. Unfortunately, we
will need them, because renewable energy sources will not fill the void left by
abandoning fossil fuels. Ultimately, nuclear fusion reactors may solve once and
for all our growing problem of providing clean power--but they won't be cheap.
Lights On! (2013) is published by Johns Hopkins University Press.