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Book Review: The Energy Age

Genersys CEO Robert Kyriakides draws on his extensive practical experience to survey energy usage and policy around the world.

THE ENERGY AGE
A GUIDE TO THE USE AND ABUSE OF ENERGY IN THE WORLD TODAY by Robert Kyriakides, 2006. Genersys, 320pp, £20 (hbk). ISBN 0-9543232-3-8

Academic research on energy use has become ever more specialised, with much of its technical and theoretical discourse impenetrable to the non-expert. It is refreshing, therefore, to encounter a comprehensive, accessible analysis written by a prominent member of the practitioner community. Robert Kyriakides is founder and CEO of UK renewable energy company Genersys, and draws on his extensive practical experience to survey energy usage and policy around the world.

The Energy Age provides both a review of global energy challenges and, more importantly, a well-argued, impassioned call for energy policy-making that is ecologically rational. For Kyriakides, we have entered the ‘age of energy’ because, more than ever, human well-being and prosperity rests on us effectively addressing the dual challenge of securing sustainable energy sources and preventing environmentally harmful consequences of energy use – above all climate change. The early chapters in the book outline our dependence on fossil fuels and their associated ecological costs – atmospheric pollution, global warming and global dimming. Kyriakides helpfully reminds us that, despite recent claims by nuclear energy proponents regarding its carbon-friendly credentials, nuclear-generated electricity is not carbon free (uranium extraction and the construction of waste storage bunkers both generate significant carbon dioxide). Given the particular expertise of the author, it is not surprising that chapter 5 – on renewable technologies – is the longest in the book and contains many intelligent, balanced observations. Kyriakides avoids unqualified support for renewables, noting the technical difficulties still hampering particular technologies (e.g. the energy storage challenges for wind turbines) and questioning the carbon reduction credentials of others (e.g. his scepticism about the environmental benefits of electricity generation from burning biomass). His overall assessment is that the greatest potential for renewables lies in small-scale applications where the renewable energy source is combined with other sources (chapter 6).

European Environment readers will perhaps be most interested in the second half of the book, where Kyriakides focuses on energy policies in the EU, UK and US. A brief overview of international environmental rule-making (chapter 7) includes criticism of the Kyoto Protocol for targeting emission reduction targets rather than levels of greenhouse gases, though Kyriakides also argues that international regulation of energy use is essential in the transition to a low-carbon future. There is an engaging, heterodox flavour to the author’s assessment of energy policy in Western Europe and North America. While the EU is credited with introducing policy measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, he maintains that it lacks a coherent energy policy (chapter 8). Kyriakides is even more critical of UK energy policy: chapter 9 comprises a devastating broadside against UK pretensions to leadership in climate change mitigation and energy planning. UK energy policy is shown to be timid, fragmented and ecologically dysfunctional – for example, the exclusion of renewable heat generation from the renewable obligation certification system, the failure to require the installation of microgeneration technologies in new houses, and the dilution of climate change obligations for various heavy polluting industries. In contrast, US energy policy is portrayed as more environmentally sane than would be expected from the climate change scepticism of the Bush administration. Kyriakides observes a wide-ranging system of federal and state tax credits and other incentives for encouraging the adoption of renewable energy technologies. Furthermore, American progress in improving the energy efficiency of domestic appliances is seen as far exceeding that which has been achieved in Europe. Nevertheless, the US remains of course the largest emitter of carbon dioxide emissions and here, Kyriakides concedes, its state representatives must still be called to account.

For his part, the author offers four fundamental principles that should govern the energy age – benign energy first, energy conservation, the polluter pays and no unnecessary use of energy. Kyriakides argues that the application of these principles fundamental changes in current understanding and behaviour – some of these implications are set out in the concluding chapter of the book. That they include a call on individuals to boycott businesses and products with unsatisfactory energy profiles suggests common political ground between at least some renewable technology companies and environmental activists, exposing even more starkly the regulatory idleness of governments.

Candid, systematic and forthright, The Energy Age contains a wealth of detail, including interesting historical asides and numerous illustrations. Eminently readable, it deserves a wide audience beyond the practitioner and policy community. While there is a useful technical glossary, its academic value as a textbook is limited by the absence of referencing and a bibliography. However, it would still serve as valuable complementary reading to standard energy textbooks. I think university students would benefit greatly by engaging with its insightful perspective.