Energy Transitions: Global and National Perspectives - Vaclav Smil  ## Metadata - Author: **Vaclav Smil** - Full Title: Energy Transitions: Global and National Perspectives - Category: #books ## Highlights - Every anthropogenic energy system—that is, any arrangement whereby the humans use the Earth’s resources to improve their chances of survival and to enhance their quality of life (and also to increase their individual and collective power and to dominate and kill)—has three fundamental components: natural energy sources, their conversions, and specific uses of energy flows. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jmsmaba9wnym8mpn4ecptbpj)) - Energy costs of energy are now increasingly expressed in terms of EROI, energy return on investment (more accurately it should be energy return on energy invested). Ratios for individual energy source range widely, from barely positive (1–1.4) for the U.S. corn-based ethanol to more than 100 for the early years of extraction from the world’s most productive oilfields (Gupta and Hall 2011). King, Maxwell, and Donovan (2015a) looked at 44 countries whose GDP comprises more than 90% of the world economic product and found that the global ratio for all primary energy declined from 34 in 1980 to 17 in 1986 before remaining between 14 and 16 from 1991 to 2010. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jmsmhcr1ddwmswkkdv74a6ya)) - For example, one of the most efficient ways to produce animal protein is carp aquaculture (as those cold-blooded herbivorous species have inherently low metabolism), while the most inefficient way to produce animal protein is beef from cattle fed mixture of corn and soybeans in feedlots. But most people with high disposable incomes prefer beef, not carp. Similarly, corn is the most efficient staple grain crop—but unlike gluten-rich hard wheat it cannot be used to bake leavened breads. And a periodic bleeding of cattle by Kenya’s Maasai (by piercing the jugular vein) is a vastly more efficient means of converting grasses to food than slaughtering cattle for meat (Smil 2013b)—but how many societies would be ready to make such a switch? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jmsp89z73ep1p8fse48k49de)) ## New highlights added February 24, 2025 at 6:31 AM - Tolstoy noted that “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jmv2z61z497ntg3rfb8vgk4w)) ## New highlights added February 26, 2025 at 7:06 AM - Long-term comparisons of prime mover powers show large performance gains. Until about 10,000 years ago the peak performances were limited by the power of human muscles, affording short-term maxima of 100–200 W of useful work, and sustained exertion at 50–100 W. Domestication of draft animals increased sustained work rates to 300–500 W during the premodern era and to 400–800 W after 1800, when the brief exertions of heavy draft horses could deliver more than 2 kW/animal. Maximum sustained performance of the most powerful animate prime movers thus rose by an order of magnitude, from about 60–80 W for working adults to 600–800 W (average for well-fed 19th-century horses). ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jn1a6bhp9gz3z1ys556g9bfh)) ## New highlights added March 1, 2025 at 1:05 PM - In June 2014 a headline of a German news Web site in English boldly claimed that “Germany produces half of energy with solar” (The Local de 2014). That claim was quite misleading. Data from Fraunhofer ISE research institute showed that the peak of solar energy supply lasted for just one hour and that the record share of 50.6% was due to the combination of sunny weather with a public holiday that lowered the normal demand (Fraunhofer ISE 2015). But the most important error of that headline was that it mistook electricity production (Stormerzeugung in German) for total energy use (Energieverbrauch). The briefly achieved share was half of electricity production, and electricity accounts for only a fraction of total primary energy. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jn9q2pvxmma3r3rgj8vgjck0))