Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air

David JC MacKay


The best-selling book on understanding sustainable energy and how we can make energy plans that add up.

How to buy

Online stores selling this book include BookDepository.co.uk, who do both paperback and hardback and send post free to most of the World, and Amazon.co.uk (paperback or hardback).

Recent reviews in the press

... may be the best technical book about the environment that I've ever read. This is to energy and climate what Freakonomics is to economics.
Cory Doctorow
boingboing.net

The book is a tour de force ... As a work of popular science it is exemplary ... For anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the real problems involved [it] is the place to start.
The Economist

The first factual meme on renewable energy? A book about climate change that gets rave reviews from folk at oil companies, environmental groups and the Number One Blog of All Time has to be worth a peek.
energysource blog
The Financial Times

This year's must-read book about tackling our future energy needs.
The Guardian

"For anyone with influence on energy policy, whether in government, business or a campaign group, this book should be compulsory reading." Tony Juniper (Former Executive Director, Friends of the Earth)

"At last a book that comprehensively reveals the true facts about sustainable energy in a form that is both highly readable and entertaining." Robert Sansom (EDF Energy)

Author Display Name: 
David JC MacKay
Edition Number: 
1
Publication Date: 
02/12/2008
Title-specific biography: 

David MacKay is a Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge. He studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge and then obtained his PhD in Computation and Neural Systems at the California Institute of Technology. He returned to Cambridge as a Royal Society research fellow at Darwin College. He is internationally known for his research in machine learning, information theory, and communication systems, including the invention of Dasher, a software interface that enables efficient communication in any language with any muscle. He has taught Physics in Cambridge since 1995. Since 2005, he has devoted much of his time to public teaching about energy. He is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Climate Change.

Last updated: 2010-04-30

Endorsements for Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air

Royal Society Research Professor, Principal Investigator, Engineering Design Centre, Cambridge

MacKay brings a welcome dose of common sense into the discussion of energy sources and use. Fresh air replacing hot air.

founding chairman of the New and Renewable Energy Centre

David MacKay's book "Sustainable Energy without hot air" is an intellectually satisfying, refreshing contribution to really understanding the complex issues of energy supply and use. It debunks the emotional claptrap which passes for energy policy and puts real numbers into the equations. It should be read by everyone, especially politicians.

The choices that we make (or fail to make) in the coming years about sustainable energy will determine what world future generations will inherit. How do we arrive at rational decisions? In his book, David MacKay does not tell us what to choose but how to. He shows that choosing between different energy options should never be a matter of whom you believe: basic arithmetic is all it takes to distinguish between viable strategies and pipedreams. Understanding our options is one thing. Acting upon this information is another.