Book Review: The Future of Energy by John Armstrong

Heard about the Government’s initiative to achieve Carbon-Zero energy by 2050? Eager to know more but lack the foundational knowledge? Or do you simply want a book that has the potential to inspire you to do your part towards reducing our carbon footprint? A simple answer to all of these is a read of this book.

A book that keeps to its tagline - a concise, detailed and inspirational guide to what our future with more dependency on renewable energy looks like. Written by a senior engineer who has worked in a variety of sectors, it offers a reliable insight into our journey through the energy transition to reach an essentially carbon free Uk by 2050. Starting off with introducing what greenhouse gases, carbon footprint and our current sources of energy are, the author skilfully informs the readers how they can calculate their carbon footprint along with informing us about his personal emissions for a reference. It follows a logical journey of introducing each of the potential “green” source of energy, its efficiency in replacing the current sources, associated disadvantages & problems with mass installations along with peak demand and how is the general population going to adapt to it. The book also details how the problems can be overcome by the community supporting the government's initiative along with doing their part in order to achieve this ambitious goal and, as the book says, “cooperate with our neighbours”. The author repeatedly mentions how a collaboration between the society and the government is essential in order to achieve the seemingly impossible goals like using more efficient heating systems at homes. Most importantly, the clever use of statistics from reliable sources helps to validate his arguments in addition to highlighting how extensive the energy sector actually is.

The book talks about the possible expansion of nuclear, hydrogen and biofuel in our approach to the carbon neutral goal. The author successfully highlights the major issues that are still hindering these highly potential substitutes use as they can’t replace hydrocarbons for certain uses for at least a few decades to come, namely airplane fuel, large scale household heating and peak electricity demand, industries requiring higher temperatures, and as feed stocks for the manufacturing industry. This was an interesting piece of information as I had never considered the large scale application of renewable electricity. The author makes some bold and optimistic predictions about our future energy production which inspires us to invest ourselves to further study the situation.

About the book itself - being only 150 pages long - is an easy read and can be completed within 4 to 5 days with 30 mins of read time everyday. The author explains the ideas in a professional yet accessible manner, so it’s an ideal book for people with a range of knowledge about energy. The book is a part of a series released by the author every year - this being the first one. In each new version, he promises to brief us about any new advancements in technology regarding the Carbon-Zero goal and about how the overall energy production and consumption have changed in the year. 

Lastly, the personal thoughts, comments and experiences of the author, amidst the other pieces of information, reflect his knowledge and interest in this field which makes all of the information even more authentic and fun to read - be it his own carbon footprint or his surprise at some of the numbers. These help the readers to be able to appreciate the seriousness of the situation and do their part for reducing the country’s carbon emissions. The author emphasises that there is no “silver bullet solution” to a carbon-free energy and is very much honest about the difficulties that the society and the government is likely to face, which makes this book a realistic guide rather than a fake optimistic prediction.

In conclusion, I would like to rate the book a 4.5 out of 5, and I am eagerly waiting for the author’s next release! I would definitely recommend it to anyone willing to know what the country’s future for energy looks in 2030 and beyond.