Energy demand in the twenty-first century will be driven by the needs of three billion people in the emerging world and three billion new inhabitants to our planet. To provide them with a renewable and sustainable energy supply is perhaps the greatest challenge for science in the twenty-first century. The science practiced to meet the energy needs of the twentieth century responded to a society of wealth, and energy systems were designed to be large and centralized. However, the inability of the emerging world to incur large capital costs suggests that a new science must be undertaken, one that does not rely on economy of scale but rather sets as its target highly manufacturable and distributed energy systems that are affordable to the poor. Only in this way can science provide global society with its most direct solution for a sustainable and carbon-neutral energy future.
...MoreDescription Compares social context of power technologies during the twentieth century with new demands of an increasingly globalizing twenty-first century.
Similar Citations
Article
Khristich, Alla;
Tatarchuk, Vitaliy;
(2013)
Conversion Developments for Oil-and-Gas Extractive Industry of USSR in the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in 60--70th Years of XX Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001321276/)
Book
Landels, John G.;
(2000)
Engineering in the Ancient World
(/isis/citation/CBB000102160/)
Article
Benjamin K Sovacool;
Noam Bergman;
Debbie Hopkins;
Kirsten EH Jenkins;
Sabine Hielscher;
Andreas Goldthau;
Brent Brossmann;
(August 2020)
Imagining sustainable energy and mobility transitions: Valence, temporality, and radicalism in 38 visions of a low-carbon future
(/isis/citation/CBB482828082/)
Book
Hirt, Paul W.;
(2012)
The Wired Northwest: The History of Electric Power, 1870s--1970s
(/isis/citation/CBB001201248/)
Article
Eisler, Matthew N.;
(2009)
Getting Power to the People: Technological Dramaturgy and the Quest for the Electrochemical Engine
(/isis/citation/CBB000931982/)
Book
Marco Venanzi;
(2020)
Carbone, lignite e acciaio. La battaglia per l'energia. L'acciaieria di Terni e le miniere di lignite umbre dal 1860 al 1960
(/isis/citation/CBB075272255/)
Book
Black, Brian C.;
(2012)
Crude Reality: Petroleum in World History
(/isis/citation/CBB001201520/)
Chapter
Hirsh, Richard F.;
Sovacool, Benjamin K.;
(2007)
Energy myth seven -- The impediments to novel energy technologies are primarily technical: The case of distributed generation
(/isis/citation/CBB001180149/)
Book
Benjamin K. Sovacool;
Marilyn A. Brown;
Scott V. Valentine;
(2016)
Fact and Fiction in Global Energy Policy: 15 Contentious Questions
(/isis/citation/CBB862888570/)
Book
Hack, Lothar;
Hack, Irmgard;
(2005)
Wissen, Macht, und Organisation. Internationalisierung industrieller Forschung und Entwicklung---ein Fallvergleich
(/isis/citation/CBB000831181/)
Book
Giovanni Carrosio;
Alessandra Landi;
(2023)
Spazio, ambiente, territorio. Teorie, metodi e prospettive di ricerca in sociologia
(/isis/citation/CBB971929401/)
Article
Taylor, Vanessa;
Chappells, Heather;
Medd, Will;
Trentmann, Frank;
(2009)
Drought Is Normal: The Socio-Technical Evolution of Drought and Water Demand in England and Wales, 1893--2006
(/isis/citation/CBB001034156/)
Book
Cara New Daggett;
(2019)
The Birth of Energy: Fossil Fuels, Thermodynamics, and the Politics of Work
(/isis/citation/CBB510402598/)
Book
Dana E. Powell;
(2018)
Landscapes of Power: Politics of Energy in the Navajo Nation
(/isis/citation/CBB907091602/)
Article
Alain Gelly;
(2003)
A Precipitous Decline, Steam as Motive Power in Montreal: A Case Study of the Lachine Canal Industries
(/isis/citation/CBB794484014/)
Article
Rafael Larraz;
(2021)
A Brief History of Oil Refining
(/isis/citation/CBB635961046/)
Book
David J. Hess;
(2016)
Undone Science: Social Movements, Mobilized Publics, and Industrial Transitions
(/isis/citation/CBB272081586/)
Book
Pittenger, Mark;
(2012)
Class Unknown: Undercover Investigations of American Work and Poverty from the Progressive Era to the Present
(/isis/citation/CBB001214618/)
Book
Eric Scott Swanson;
(2016)
Science and Society: Understanding Scientific Methodology, Energy, Climate, and Sustainability
(/isis/citation/CBB569007103/)
Book
Tricia Starks;
(2022)
Cigarettes and Soviets: Smoking in the USSR
(/isis/citation/CBB548822669/)
Be the first to comment!