The solar economy : renewable energy for a sustainable global future / Hermann Scheer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Scheer, Hermann, 1944-2010

Standardized Title:

Solare Weltwirtschaft. English

Language:

English

German

Subjects (All):

Renewable energy sources.

Sustainable development.

Physical Description:

xx, 347 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; Sterling, VA : Earthscan Publications, 2002.

Language Note:

Translated from the German.

Summary:

The global economy and the way of life it has created are based on the exploitation of fossil fuels -- coal, oil and, more recently, natural gas -- and fossil fuels will be the engine of the collapse of that economy. Without fundamental change, it has no future.

Fossil energy not only threatens massive environmental and social disruption through global warming but, at present rates of consumption, it will run out within decades, causing huge industrial dislocation. Even before then, the conflicts and imbalances it causes in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world's economy will be frighteningly exacerbated.

The alternative exists: renewable energy from renewable sources -- above all solar. Substituting renewable for fossil resources will take a new industrial revolution, which is imperative if the worst of the damage is to be averted, and which also offers an unprecedented chance to restructure the international order, revitalize regional economies and prevent environmental devastation.

It can be done, and it can be done in time. The Solar Economy, by one of the world's most effective analysts and advocates, lays out the blueprints, showing how the political, economic and technological challenges can be met using indigenous, renewable and universally available resources, and the enormous opportunities and benefits that will flow from doing so.

Contents:

Scenario: From fossil fuels to solar power: transforming the global economy 1

The power of the pyromaniacs 5

Fossil resource dependency: how economic processes have come adrift from their environmental and social bases 10

Global competition in place of global environmental policy 12

The origins of the fossil-fuel economy 14

Accelerating change and global displacement 15

Business unbound: cutting loose from nature and society 19

Reconnecting business and society through solar resources 21

From the political to the economic solar manifesto 25

Part I Captivity or Liberation: Fossil Fuel and Solar Supply Chains Compared

Chapter 1 Ensnared by fossil supply chains 37

Long supply chains due to limited resources: the logic of globalization 37

Fossil resource supply chains and industrial concentration: market destruction through market mechanisms 44

The spider in the web: the growing influence of Big Energy and Big Mining 49

The convergence of power: networking, supercartels and the disempowerment of democratic institutions 56

Chapter 2 Exploiting solar resources: the new political and economic freedom 62

The solar supply chain 66

The economic logic of the solar energy supply chain 76

Solar power: technology without technocracy 82

Part II The Pathological Politics of Fossil Resources

Chapter 3 The 21st century writing on the wall: the political cost of fuel and resource conflict 93

A world in denial: the disregard for limited reserves 94

Dwindling reserves versus worldwide growth in demand 103

Arming for the resource conflict 105

Resource reserves, gunboat diplomacy and the moral bankruptcy of society 115

Chapter 4 The distorting effects of fossil supply chains 120

The rise and fall of the fossil city 121

The fossil resource trap closes on the developing world 128

Chapter 5 The mythology of fossil energy 137

Figures of fancy: the inadequacy of conventional energy statistics 139

The inadequacy of energy forecasts 143

The profligate subsidies for conventional energy systems 149

The feigned productivity of nuclear and fossil energy 153

Ideology and the physics of energy 159

The fear of the small scale 166

Part III Throwing off the fossil supply chains

Chapter 6 Energy beyond the grid 173

Wireless power: the potential of solar stand-alone and stand-by technologies 174

The potential for natural and technological solar energy storage 182

Synergistic applications, cross-substitution and all-load micro-power plants 195

The solar technology revolution and the solar information society 201

Chapter 7 The untapped wealth of solar resources 206

The higher productivity of biological materials 209

Replacing fossil with solar resources 218

Solar materials: from agricultural monocultures to polycultures 220

The real biotechnology: materials science, not genetic engineering 225

Chapter 8 The profitability of renewable energy and resources 231

Whose costs? Why solar and fossil resources cannot be compared on the basis of economic efficiency calculations 233

Cost avoidance: economical application of solar resources in a nutshell 237

Part IV Towards a solar economy

Chapter 9 Exploiting solar energy 251

The role of capital allowances

and their problems 253

Tax-exempt status for solar resources: overcoming the legitimacy crisis of environmental taxation 256

Possibilities and problems in the market for green electricity 259

Green suppliers and municipal self-sufficiency 269

Creative destruction in the energy industry and the transformation of the resource industry 276

Hard roads to soft resources 280

Chapter 10 Regionalization of the global economy through solar resources 285

Regionalization effects through solar resources 288

'Own implementation' versus 'joint implementation': opportunities for the developing world 292

Regionalizing trade flows 296

The sustainable economy: global technology markets, regional commodity markets 301

Trade not talk: beyond the energy industry 308

Chapter 11 The visible hand of the sun: blueprint for a solar world 312

Forwards: towards the primary economy 316

Work and the solar economy 320

From the bounty of the sun to global economic prosperity 323.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [326]-340) and index.

ISBN:

1853838357

OCLC:

49750505