The Burning Answer

by Keith Barnham

Overview

Our society faces a choice. We could be enjoying a sustainable lifestyle but we have chosen not to. In three generations we have consumed half the oil produced by photosynthesis over eight million generations. In two generations we have used half our uranium resources. With threats from global warming, oil depletion and nuclear disaster, we are running out of options. Solar power, as Keith Barnham says, is our necessary solution.Barnham explains that the roots of solar energy lie in a little known equation E=hf, an equation which was coincidentally celebrated (and explained to the world) by Einstein in the same year he discovered E=mc2. He alleges that the former equation has been overlooked in favor of the latter, much to our detriment, and Barnham is here to offer us a solution: We can still turn things around and solar energy is the key.In this provocative, inspiring, passionately argued book, Keith Barnham outlines actions that any one and all of us can take to make an impact now and on future generations. The Burning Answer is a solar manifesto for the new climate-aware generation and a must-read for climate-change skeptics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605987774
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	05/15/2015
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	928 KB

About the Author

Keith Barnham is Emeritus Professor of Physics at Imperial College London. He started his career in experimental particle physics working in research laboratories in Geneva and the University of California Berkeley. Mid-career he switched to researching solar energy and invented a solar cell with three times the efficiency of today's roof-top panels. He lives in England and his website is www.burninganswers.com.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

I The History of the Semiconductor Revolution 9

1 We are Stardust 11

2 What is Light? 20

3 The Quantum Revolution 45

4 Brighter than a Thousand Suns 73

5 The Mystery of the Quantum Conductor 97

6 The Semiconductor Revolution 117

II The Here and Now of the Solar Revolution 143

7 Questions for the Solar Revolution 145

8 The Solar Cornucopia 166

9 How Can We Reduce Our Carbon Emissions? 188

10 The Politics of the Solar Revolution 209

III The Future of the Solar Revolution 233

11 Foretelling the Future 235

12 The Electric Car 240

13 Solar Fuel 251

14 Manifesto for the Solar Revolution 273

15 Tomorrow the World 282

16 Wishful Thinking? 300

Acknowledgements 317

Bibliography 323

Index 373

Editorial Reviews

06/29/2015
In with renewables and out with everything else—especially nuclear power—is the message of this tendentious "manifesto" on energy policy. Barnham, a British physicist who developed a solar cell, QuantaSol, insists that "solar" power—which in his usage includes not just photovoltaics but wind power, hydro-power, bio-gas, and other sources that derive circuitously from the sun's energy—is the only sustainable energy that can save us from climate change. He begins with lengthy discussions of the physics of energy technologies, pitched at laymen but using maladroit metaphors that are simplistic yet difficult to follow. (Buzz Lightyear at a children's party is a favorite image.) He moves on to inadequate, rose-tinted treatments of the practical economics, performance, and reliability of renewable energy systems, glibly skating past their drawbacks; his analysis of the effect of photovoltaics on wholesale electricity prices is especially garbled and misleading. Much of the book is given over to anathemas against nuclear power that are similarly ill-considered and biased. (He numbers the element plutonium and the humble neutron among "the villains of our story.") Barnham's sloppiness with facts, murky explanations, dotty conceits ("We don't know if Stonehenge is saying nuclear waste is stored there"), and blatant propagandizing make this one of the worst accounts of energy policy to appear in recent years. (May)

Publishers Weekly

The energy fizzes off the page, and any doubters of the merits of solar power, be they scientists, commentators or policy wonks, are given a swift left-hook.

The Observer

Dozens of books have been published in recent years touting the environmental benefits of solar energy, but few display more unbridled enthusiasm for the technology than this rousing manifesto. Some truly revolutionary ideas here. Barnham’s work will inspire everyone interested in green energy, from business people to consumers to activists, and deliver a body blow to those still determined to exploit climate-damaging fossil fuels.

Booklist

Keith Barnham has something new to say: he cuts through the current morass of fossil-fuel and nuclear lobbyists' negative propaganda with a clear and original vision for solar power. It is a bold vision, a necessary one, and the world needs to be fired up about it. Keith Barnham is fanning a necessary flame.

The Guardian

Dozens of books have been published in recent years touting the environmental benefits of solar energy, but few display more unbridled enthusiasm for the technology than this rousing manifesto. Some truly revolutionary ideas here. Barnham’s work will inspire everyone interested in green energy, from business people to consumers to activists, and deliver a body blow to those still determined to exploit climate-damaging fossil fuels.

Booklist

04/15/2015
Barnham (emeritus, physics, Imperial Coll. London) makes an impassioned case for solar energy as the best solution to the threats of global warming, fossil-fuel depletion, and nuclear power. He's a gee-whiz kind of popular science writer, one with a knack for analogy. The book begins with a fascinating survey of the discoveries that led to the invention of semiconductor and photovoltaic cells; the work of Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, Albert Einstein, et al, receives clear, often witty explanation. Next, Barnham considers the politics surrounding energy and explains why Germany is leading the world in solar power generation; he also ventures a short answer as to why research into solar energy has been slow (the military hasn't been interested). Barnham closes the work by describing some of the latest solar technologies and, since "people power" is the force behind any revolution, it is here he delivers his manifesto. VERDICT The author makes some big claims about the viability (and necessity) of solar energy, and while he seems oblivious to the strength of NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard), many readers will be inclined to agree with him. He persuades not with charts and graphs but with the power of his storytelling and his passion for science.—Robert Eagan, Windsor P.L., Ont.

Library Journal

2015-03-01
Humans once obtained all energy directly from the sun and will do so again, writes Barnham (Emeritus, Physics/Imperial Coll. London) in an optimistic, heavily science-based polemic. The author begins with a dense, not always relevant history of 20th-century nuclear physics, but he also includes a primer on quantum theory that explains the solar cell and the closely related transistor invented following World War II. Aware of the transistor's possibilities, the American military massively supported research that led to the digital revolution that continues to expand at an astonishing rate today. The military and government showed less interest in solar cells, so development lagged, but Barnham maintains that an energy revolution began around 2000—mostly in Europe. In the second part of the book, the author describes how this is playing out with the necessary inclusion of wind and biogas electricity generators. Americans who assume that solar and renewable energy are laudable but impractical will be surprised by Barnham's extensive evidence of how well other nations are doing. Germany and Denmark aim to provide all electricity through renewables in 2050; many smaller nations are doing even better. "Their work is further evidence confirming one important message of this book: an all-renewable electricity supply is achievable quickly, cheaply, and safely," writes the author. "What is missing is the political will." Nuclear power remains exorbitantly expensive; the industry would vanish without massive government support. Oil, coal, and gas producers receive generous tax breaks and subsidies, and they show their gratitude. Barnham concludes with a cheerful prophecy of progress over the next decades, as well as not-entirely-convincing advice on how British and American readers can persuade their leaders to sacrifice selfish interests and join the revolution. An admirable addition to the growing genre maintaining that global warming may not lead to Armageddon.

Kirkus Reviews