W. S. Jevons on Energy Efficiency (Memo to Biden, Part IV)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 23, 2020 1 Comment

Ed. Note: Also see Part I (on wind); Part II (on water, biomass, and geothermal); and Part III (on coal) in this series.

It is wholly a confusion of ideas to suppose that the economical use of fuel is equivalent to a diminished consumption. The very contrary is the truth. As a rule, new modes of economy will lead to an increase of consumption, according to a principle recognized in many parallel instances. (Jevons, below)

The long-ago insights of William Stanley Jevons profoundly inform the current debate over energy efficiency and energy-conservation policy, not just to the debate over the role of renewable energy in modern society.

Jevons’s The Coal Question (London: Macmillan and Co., 1865) made the case that renewables (windpower; waterpower, biomass, and geothermal) could not substitute for coal.…

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W. S. Jevons on Coal (Memo to Biden, Part III)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 22, 2020 No Comments

Ed. Note: Also see Part I (on wind); Part II (on water, biomass, and geothermal); and Part IV (on energy efficiency) in this series.

Coal, in truth, stands not beside but entirely above all other commodities. It is the material energy of the country—the universal aid—the factor in everything we do. With coal almost any feat is possible or easy; without it we are thrown back into the laborious poverty of early times. (Jevons, below)

Each renewable energy, W. S. Jevons explained, was either too scarce or too unreliable to fuel the new industrial era (see previous posts on windpower and on waterpower, biomass, and geothermal).

The energy savior was coal, a concentrated, plentiful, storable, and transportable source of energy that was England’s bounty for the world.…

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W. S. Jevons (1865) on Waterpower, Biomass, and Geothermal (Memo to Biden, Part II)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 21, 2020 No Comments

Ed. Note: Also see Part I (on wind); Part III (on coal); and Part IV (on energy efficiency) in this series.

We cannot revert to timber fuel, for ‘nearly the entire surface of our island would be required to grow timber sufficient for the consumption of the iron manufacture alone.’

The internal heat of the earth … presents an immense store of force, but, being manifested only in the hot-spring, the volcano, or the warm mine, it is evidently not available. (Jevons, below)

W. S. Jevons in his early day recognized a central problem of windpower for powering machinery–intermittency. The wind does not always blow, and it cannot be known when this will occur, making an even flow of power (as from conventional sources) impossible short of cost-prohibitive battery backup.…

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W. S. Jevons (1865) on Wind (Memo to Biden, Part I)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 20, 2020 2 Comments

Ed. Note: Also see Part II (on water, biomass, and geothermal); Part III (on coal); and Part IV (on energy efficiency) in this series.

“The first great requisite of motive power is, that it shall be wholly at our command, to be exerted when, and where, and in what degree we desire. The wind, for instance, as a direct motive power, is wholly inapplicable to a system of machine labour, for during a calm season the whole business of the country would be thrown out of gear.”

The most important book written on energy economics was the first: William Stanley Jevons’s The Coal Question (London: Macmillan and Company, 1865, rev. 1866). This classic is available in its entirety on the Internet.

Jevons’s remarkably sophisticated treatment of energy sustainability remains pertinent today.…

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‘Shrillness’ of greens contributed to failure in Washington — EDF chief ‘ (2011 article rings true today)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 16, 2020 2 Comments Continue Reading

Electric Vehicles: Old Market Competitor

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 14, 2020 No Comments Continue Reading

‘The Increasing Sustainability of Conventional Energy’ (1999 analysis for 2020)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 30, 2020 8 Comments Continue Reading

Joanna Szurmak Interview: Extending the Julian Simon Worldview (Part II: Population Bombed!)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 24, 2020 7 Comments Continue Reading

GE: Contra-Capitalism’s Toll (lightbulb unit sold)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 15, 2020 5 Comments Continue Reading

Heart of Hawaii: Oil Powers Oahu’s Sustainable Energy Program

By David Shormann -- June 10, 2020 6 Comments Continue Reading