“Throughout space there is energy. It is a question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature.”

Start Here

The best summary of how we should look at the competing forms of energy production in the coming decades is David MacKay’s fantastic synopsis of his book Sustainable Energy — Without the Hot Air.

• Synopsis: Sustainable Energy — Without The Hot Air
  By David MacKay [PDF, 8-minute read]

It covers pretty much everything you could want to know about fossil fuels, renewables, and nuclear energy, basing its conclusions on numbers rather than politics. The examples deal primarily with the United Kingdom but are easily applicable to every nation on Earth, and there’s tons of additional data dealing with other countries (United States, Australia, Germany, and more) available online.

If you enjoyed the synopsis and want to tackle the full (free) 380-page book, it comes highly recommended from us. If you’re pressed for time, then parts I and II, at least, are certainly worthy of attention. In our minds, there’s no better impartial guide to solving mankind’s energy problems.

Then Try

After that, dig into some of the main global energy trends in more detail with the following great reads.

• How the U.S. Is Ceding a Huge Energy Advantage to the Developing World
  Jeff Spross, The Week [5-minute read]
• The Great German Energy Experiment
  David Talbot, MIT Technology Review [16-minute read]
• A Star in a Bottle
  Raffi Khatchadourian, The New Yorker [74-minute read]
• Can Coal Ever Be Clean?
  Michelle Nijuis, National Geographic [18-minute read]

Dive Deeper

Want more? You got it. Here’s a link dump of some of our favorite reads on energy and power, in no particular order.

• Why India is Captured by Carbon
  David Rose, The Guardian [30-minute read]
• A Billion People in the Dark
  Kevin Bullis, MIT Technology Review [15-minute read]
• A New Way to Do Nuclear
  Gareth Cook, The New Yorker [8-minute read]
• Smooth Operators (metered paywall, use private browsing mode)
  Uncredited, The Economist [13-minute read]
• Can Andrea Rossi’s Infinite-Energy Black Box Power the World — Or Just Scam It?
  Steve Featherstone, Popular Science [30-minute read]
• Can the World Economy Survive Without Fossil Fuels?
  Larry Elliott, The Guardian [25-minute read]
• Sunshine Revolution: The Age of Solar Power
  Ed Crooks and Lucy Hornby, Financial Times [23-minute read]
• Heroes of the Hot Zone
  Pico Iyer, Vanity Fair [18-minute read]
• Inside the War on Coal
  Michael Grunwald, Politico [34-minute read]
• The Boy Who Played With Fusion
  Tom Clynes, Popular Science [26-minute read]

An Actual Book

Sometimes it’s nice to relax on the sofa and get really into a subject with an actual book. Plenty has been written over the years about energy and power—here are our picks.

• Daniel Yergin — The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World
• Lester R. Brown — The Great Transition: Shifting From Fossil Fuels to Solar and Wind Energy
• Richard A. Muller — Energy for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines
• Russell Gold — The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World
• Jeremy Share — Renewable: The World-Changing Power of Alternative Energy

Watch Something

Reading is hard work, we know. Here’s a bunch of energy-themed videos, movies, and TV documentaries you can watch instead.

• What Is Energy?
  Understanding how energy works on a scientific level is crucial to understanding it on a macroeconomic level. Thankfully, SciShow put together this wonderful explanation. [4-minute YouTube clip]

• Electricity Generation
  Also important to understand is how power plants operate. Different types of power perform in different ways—this video gives a nice overview. [5-minute YouTube clip]

• Power Trip
  This award-winning documentary charts the electricity crisis in Georgia shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. It’s a fantastic glimpse into how vital—and corrupt—the world’s energy infrastructure really is. Grab it on DVD here. [86-minute film]

• The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power
  Adapted from the book by the same name (which won a Pulitzer), The Prize is a PBS documentary offering the history of the oil industry in eight parts. It intertwines oil, politics, and international power structures from the 1850s through to 1990. Buy it on DVD here. [Eight 53-minute episodes]

• Burning in the Sun
  This award-winning documentary charts entrepreneur Daniel Dembele’s quest to start a business building solar panels in Mali, electrifying rural communities that live without power. Here’s the trailer, and you can rent the full movie for $2.99 here. [3-minute trailer on Vimeo, 1-hour, 22-minute movie]

• Into Eternity
  This spooky Danish documentary looks at the construction of a permanent nuclear waste repository on Olkiluoto island in Finland. Rather than answering questions, it asks them — how can we as a species deal with waste that’ll be toxic for far longer than any of us will be alive? And how can we best warn future generations of its effects? Buy it on DVD here. [79-minute film]

• Top 10 Energy Sources of the Future
  Looking forward, this shorter clip presents some of the potential energy options for the future — from algal biofuels and hydrogen cells to nuclear fusion and space-based solar. We’ll be looking at some of these in detail at How We Get To Next in the coming weeks. [13-minute YouTube clip]

• How to Build a Basic Portable Solar Power System
  Finally, here’s a short how-to guide for creating a small solar-power system for use in a campsite, an off-grid shack, or on a boat. Every component is detailed and explained, as well as how they all fit together. [6-minute YouTube clip]

Did we miss a fantastic point of reference that should be included here? Post a response below with your suggestions!