Brittle Power
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Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security is a 1982 book by Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, prepared originally as a Pentagon study, and re-released in 2001 following the September 11 attacks. The book argues that domestic energy infrastructure is very vulnerable to disruption, by accident or malice, often even more so than imported oil. A resilient energy system is feasible, costs less, works better, is favoured in the market, but is rejected by U.S. policy.[1] In the preface to the 2001 edition, Lovins explains that these themes are still very current. [2]
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[edit] Vulnerability to large-scale failures
Lovins argues that The United States has for decades been running on energy that is "brittle" (easily shattered by accident or malice) and that this poses a grave and growing threat to national security, life, and liberty.[3]
Lovins explains that this danger comes not from hostile ideology but from misapplied technology. The size, complexity, pattern, and control structure of the electrical power system make it inherently vulnerable to large-scale failures. The same is true of the technologies that deliver oil, gas, and coal to run our vehicles, buildings, and industries. Our reliance on these delicately poised energy systems has unwittingly put at risk our whole way of life.[4]
Lovins detailed research shows that these vulnerabilities are increasingly being exploited. Brittle Power documents many significant assaults on energy facilities, other than during a war, in forty countries and within the United States, in at least twenty-four states. [5]
[edit] Resilient energy systems
Lovins discusses at length the resilience of appropriate renewable energy sources:
- "A resilient energy supply system should consist of numerous, relatively small modules with a low individual cost of failure. This is quite different from the approach presently followed by most energy companies and governments—vainly trying to build high technical reliability into modules so large that their cost of failure is unacceptable. The philosophy of resilience, on the other hand, accepts the inevitability of failure and seeks to limit the damage that failure can do. For example, rather than suffering a prolonged regional or national failure that can shatter the whole economy, one might occasionally have to tolerate a day or two of reduced production in an individual factory—rather like what happens now when a single fossil-fueled industrial boiler breaks down."[6]
- "A key feature which helps to make these energy sources resilient is that they are renewable: they harness the energy of sun, wind, water, or farm and forestry wastes, rather than that of depletable fuels."[7]
[edit] Related articles
Brittle Power is 500 pages long and has 1,200 references. It has been summarised and referred to in various publications:
- The Atlantic Monthly's 1983 lay summary "The Fragility of Domestic Energy"[8]
- the 1984 book chapter "America's Energy Jugular" written for security professionals.[9]
- An October 2001 brief for the Montreux Energy Forum, a group of energy-industry leaders.[1]
[edit] The author
Lovins has published a total of 28 books and hundreds of papers. His work has been recognized by the Alternative Nobel, Onassis, Nissan, Shingo and Mitchell prizes, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Happold Medal, eight honorary doctorates, and the Heinz, Lindbergh, World Technology, and Hero of the Planet Awards.[10] Lovins has also acted as a consultant to dozens of Fortune 500 companies.[11]
[edit] See also
- Efficient energy use
- Energy conservation
- Energy security and renewable technology
- New York City blackout of 1977
- Northeast Blackout of 2003
- Renewable energy commercialization
- Soft energy path
- Soft energy technology
- Winning the Oil Endgame
[edit] References
- ^ a b Critical issues in domestic energy vulnerability
- ^ Preface to the 2001 edition
- ^ Brittle Power, Chapter 1, p. 1.
- ^ Brittle Power, Chapter 1, p. 1.
- ^ Brittle Power, Chapter 1, p. 2.
- ^ Brittle Power, Chapter 16, p. 264
- ^ Brittle Power, Chapter 16, p. 266
- ^ The Fragility of Domestic Energy
- ^ Nuclear arms: Ethics strategy, Politics
- ^ Hypercars, hydrogen, and the automotive transition International Journal of Vehicle Design, Vol. 35, Nos. 1/2, 2004, p. 50.
- ^ Tilting at Energy Windmills The Wall Street Journal, 25 July 2005.
