Amory Lovins

Amory Lovins
Amory Lovins in 2011.
Born Amory Bloch Lovins
(1947-11-13) November 13, 1947[1][2]
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Occupation consultant physicist, environmental scientist
Known for Advocacy and analysis of efficient energy use and soft energy paths
Awards World Technology Award, Right Livelihood Award, Blue Planet Prize, Heinz Award, Environment Prize, Bundesverdienstkreuz

Amory Bloch Lovins (born November 13, 1947)[3] is an American physicist, environmental scientist, writer, and Chairman/Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has worked in the field of energy policy and related areas for four decades. He was named by Time magazine one of the World's 100 most influential people in 2009.

Lovins worked professionally as an environmentalist in the 1970s and since then as an analyst of a "soft energy path" for the United States and other nations. He has promoted energy efficiency, the use of renewable energy sources, and the generation of energy at or near the site where the energy is actually used. Lovins has also advocated a "negawatt revolution" arguing that utility customers don't want kilowatt-hours of electricity; they want energy services. In the 1990s, his work with Rocky Mountain Institute included the design of an ultra-efficient automobile, the Hypercar.

Lovins does not see his energy ideas as green or left-wing, and he is an advocate of private enterprise and free market economics. He notes that Rupert Murdoch has made News Corporation carbon-neutral, with savings of millions of dollars. But, says Lovins, large institutions are becoming more "gridlocked and moribund", and he supports the rise of "citizen organizations" around the world.

Lovins has received ten honorary doctorates and won many awards. He has provided expert testimony in eight countries, briefed 19 heads of state, and published 31 books. These books include Reinventing Fire, Winning the Oil Endgame, Small is Profitable, Brittle Power, and Natural Capitalism.

Early life

Born in Washington, DC, Lovins spent much of his youth in Silver Spring, Maryland, in Amherst, Massachusetts, and in Montclair, New Jersey. In 1964, Lovins entered Harvard College. After two years there, he transferred in 1967 to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied physics and other subjects. In 1969 he became a Junior Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford, where he had a temporary Oxford master of arts status as a result of becoming a university don. He did not graduate, because the University would not allow him to pursue a doctorate in energy, as it was two years before the 1973 oil embargo and energy was not yet considered an academic subject.[4] Lovins resigned his Fellowship and moved to London to pursue his energy work. He moved back to the U.S. in 1981 and settled in western Colorado in 1982.[5]

Work

Friends of the Earth

Each summer from about 1965 to 1981, Lovins guided mountaineering trips and photographed the White Mountains of New Hampshire, contributing photographs to At Home in the Wild: New England's White Mountains. In 1971 he wrote about the endangered Snowdonia National Park in the book, Eryri, the Mountains of Longing, commissioned by David Brower, president of Friends of the Earth.[6] Lovins spent about a decade as British Representative for Friends of the Earth.

During the early seventies, Lovins became interested in the area of resource policy, especially energy policy. The 1973 energy crisis helped create an audience for his writing and an essay originally penned as a U.N. paper grew into his first book concerned with energy, World Energy Strategies (1973). His next book was Non-Nuclear Futures: The Case for an Ethical Energy Strategy (1975), co-authored with John H. Price. Lovins published a 10,000-word essay "Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?" in Foreign Affairs, in October 1976. Its contents were the subject of many seminars at government departments, universities, energy agencies, and nuclear energy research centers, during 1975–1977.[7] The article was expanded and republished as Soft Energy Paths: Toward a Durable Peace in 1977.

Rocky Mountain Institute

By 1978 Lovins had published six books, consulted widely, and was active in energy affairs in some 15 countries. In 1982, he and Hunter Lovins founded Rocky Mountain Institute, based in Snowmass, Colorado. Together with a group of colleagues, the Lovinses fostered efficient resource use and sustainable development.[6]

Lovins has briefed 19 heads of state, provided expert testimony in eight countries, and published 29 books and several hundred papers.[5] His clients have included many Fortune 500 companies, major real-estate developers, and utilities.[5] Public-sector clients have included the OECD, UN, Resources for the Future, many national governments, and 13 US states.[5] Lovins served in 1980–81 on the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Research Advisory Board, and in 1999–2001 and 2006–08 on Defense Science Board task forces on military energy efficiency and strategy. His visiting academic chairs most recently included a visiting professorship in Stanford University's School of Engineering.[8]

Since 1982, RMI has grown into a broad-based "think-and-do tank" with more than 85 staff and an annual budget of some $13 million.[5] RMI has spun off five for-profit companies.[9]

Ideas

Soft energy paths

Solar energy technologies, such as solar water heaters, located on or near the buildings which they supply with energy, are a prime example of a soft energy technology.

Amory Lovins came to prominence in 1976 when he published an article in Foreign Affairs called "Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?" Lovins argued that the United States had arrived at an important crossroads and could take one of two paths.[10] The first, supported by U.S. policy, promised a future of steadily increasing reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear fission, and had serious environmental risks. The alternative, which Lovins called "the soft path," favored "benign" sources of renewable energy like wind power and solar power, along with a heightened commitment to energy conservation and energy efficiency. In October 1977, The Atlantic ran a cover story on Lovins' ideas.[10]

Amory Lovins advocates "soft energy paths" involving efficient energy use, diverse and renewable energy sources, and special reliance on "soft energy technologies". Soft energy technologies are those based on solar, wind, biofuels, geothermal, etc. which are matched in scale and quality to their task. Residential solar energy technologies are prime examples of soft energy technologies and rapid deployment of simple, energy conserving, residential solar energy technologies is fundamental to a soft energy strategy.[11]

Lovins has described the "hard energy path" as involving inefficient energy use and centralized, non-renewable energy sources such as fossil fuels. He believes soft path impacts are more "gentle, pleasant and manageable" than hard path impacts. These impacts range from the individual and household level to those affecting the very fabric of society at the national and international level.[11]

Lovins on the Soft Path is an award-winning documentary film made by Amory and Hunter Lovins. It received many prizes: "Best Science and Technology Film, San Francisco International Film Festival, 1983; Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival, 1982; Best of the Festival, Environmental Education Film Festival, 1982; Best Energy Film, International Environmental Film Festival, 1982; and Chris Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film Festival, 1982."[12]

Nuclear power limitations

Lovins says that nuclear power plants are intermittent in that they will sometimes fail unexpectedly, often for long periods of time.[13] For example, in the United States, 132 nuclear plants were built, and 21% were permanently and prematurely closed due to reliability or cost problems, while another 27% have at least once completely failed for a year or more. The remaining U.S. nuclear plants produce approximately 90% of their full-time full-load potential, but even they must shut down (on average) for 39 days every 17 months for scheduled refueling and maintenance.[13] To cope with such intermittence by nuclear (and centralized fossil-fuelled) power plants, utilities install a "reserve margin" of roughly 15% extra capacity spinning ready for instant use.[13]

Nuclear plants have an additional disadvantage; for safety, they must instantly shut down in a power failure, but for nuclear-physics reasons, they can't be restarted quickly. For example, during the Northeast Blackout of 2003, nine operating U.S. nuclear units had to shut down and were later restarted. During the first three days, while they were most needed, their output was less than 3% of normal. After twelve days of restart, their average capacity loss had exceeded 50 percent.[13]

Lovins general assessment of nuclear power is that "Nuclear power is the only energy source where mishap or malice can kill so many people so far away; the only one whose ingredients can help make and hide nuclear bombs; the only climate solution that substitutes proliferation, accident, and high-level radioactive waste dangers. Indeed, nuclear plants are so slow and costly to build that they reduce and retard climate protection". With respect to the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents, Lovins has said: "An earthquake-and-tsunami zone crowded with 127 million people is an unwise place for 54 reactors".[14]

In terms of the UK, Amory Lovins commented in 2014 that:

Britain's plan for a fleet of new nuclear power stations is … unbelievable … It is economically daft. The guaranteed price [being offered to French state company EDF] is over seven times the unsubsidised price of new wind in the US, four or five times the unsubsidised price of new solar power in the US. Nuclear prices only go up. Renewable energy prices come down. There is absolutely no business case for nuclear. The British policy has nothing to do with economic or any other rational base for decision making.[15]

Negawatt revolution

A "negawatt revolution" would involve the rapid deployment of electricity-saving technologies, such as compact fluorescent lamps.

A negawatt is a unit in watts of energy saved. It is basically the opposite of a watt. Amory Lovins has advocated a "negawatt revolution", arguing that utility customers don't want kilowatt-hours of electricity; they want energy services such as hot showers, cold beer, lit rooms, and spinning shafts, which can come more cheaply if electricity is used more efficiently.[16]

According to Lovins, energy efficiency represents a profitable global market and American companies have at their disposal the technical innovations to lead the way. Not only should they "upgrade their plants and office buildings, but they should encourage the formation of negawatt markets".[17] Lovins sees negawatt markets as a win-win solution to many environmental problems. Because it is "now generally cheaper to save fuel than to burn it, global warming, acid rain, and urban smog can be reduced not at a cost but at a profit".[17]

Lovins explains that many companies are already enjoying the financial and other rewards that come from saving electricity. Yet progress in converting to electricity saving technologies has been slowed by the indifference or outright opposition of some utilities.[16] A second obstacle to efficiency is that many electricity-using devices are purchased by people who won't be paying their running costs and thus have little incentive to consider efficiency. Lovins also believes that many customers "don't know what the best efficiency buys are, where to get them, or how to shop for them".[16]

Hypercar

In 1994, Amory Lovins developed the design concept of the Hypercar. This vehicle would have ultra-light construction with an aerodynamic body using advanced composite materials, low-drag design, and hybrid drive.[18] Designers of the Hypercar claim that it would achieve a three- to fivefold improvement in fuel economy, equal or better performance, safety, amenity, and affordability, compared with today's cars.[19]

In 1999, RMI took this process a step further by launching a for-profit venture, Hypercar Inc. This independent company, in which RMI has a minority interest, is now taking the lead in advancing key areas of Hypercar research and development.[20] In 2004, Hypercar Inc. changed its name to Fiberforge to better reflect the company's new goal of lowering the cost of high-volume advanced-composite structures by leveraging the patents of David F. Taggart, one of the founders of Hypercar, Inc.[20]

Lovins says the commercialisation of the Hypercar began in 2014, with the production of the all-carbon electric BMW i3 family and the 313 miles per gallon Volkswagen XL1.[15]

Citizen participation

Lovins does not see his energy ideas as green or left-wing, and he is an advocate of private enterprise and free market economics. He notes that Rupert Murdoch has made News Corporation carbon-neutral, with savings of millions of dollars. But, says Lovins, large institutions are becoming more "gridlocked and moribund", and he supports the rise of "citizen organizations" around the world.

Paul Hawken's Blessed Unrest chronicles the rise of millions of non-profit citizen organizations around the world — the greatest social movement in history. As central institutions become more gridlocked and moribund, a new vitality is beginning to spread renewal through the stem to the flower.[21]

Criticism

Institutions and energy specialists have criticized various positions taken by Amory Lovins. One of the main points of contention is the assumption by the RMI of a linear relation between improvements in energy efficiency and reductions in aggregate energy consumption. The Jevons Paradox [22] suggests that improvements in energy efficiency actually lead to an increase in energy use, as a result of decreasing cost. This "rebound effect" is downplayed in the analyses performed by Lovins.[23] Other assumptions made by Lovins have also received criticism. For example, in Lovins' book, Reinventing Fire, it is assumed that 50% of all electricity in the US could come from wind in 2050. Other authors find that this is capped probably around 30%.[24] Similar overestimated are identified in PV (solar), where estimates are made for about 30%; this is seen as implausible. Moreover, according to the authors, no analyses are given about the need for huge volumes of electricity storage, which would be needed when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow.

Awards

Amory Lovins has received ten honorary doctorates and was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1984, of the World Academy of Art and Science in 1988, and of the World Business Academy in 2001. He has received the Right Livelihood Award, the Blue Planet Prize, Volvo Environment Prize, the 4th Annual Heinz Award in the Environment in 1998,[25] and the National Design (Design Mind), Jean Meyer, and Lindbergh Awards.[3][5]

Lovins is also the recipient of the Time Hero for the Planet awards, the Benjamin Franklin and Happold Medals, and the Shingo, Nissan, Mitchell, and Onassis Prizes. He has also received a MacArthur Fellowship and is an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, and an Honorary Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council.[3][5] Furthermore, he is on the Advisory Board of the Holcim Foundation.[26]

In 2009, Time magazine named Lovins as one of the world's 100 most influential people.[5][27]

On 17 March 2016, Lovins received the Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse (Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit) from the Federal Republic of Germany for intellectually underpinning Germany's Energiewende, most notably with his concept of "soft energy" and how that promotes peace and prosperity.[28]

Personal life

In 1979 Amory Lovins married L. Hunter Sheldon, a lawyer, forester, and social scientist. Hunter received her undergraduate degree in sociology and political studies from Pitzer College, and her J.D. from Loyola University's School of Law. They separated in 1989 and divorced in 1999.[29] In 2007, he married Judy Hill Lovins, a fine-art landscape photographer.

Lovins is the brother of Julie Beth Lovins, a computational linguist who wrote the first stemming algorithm for word matching.[30]

Books

This is a list of books which are authored or co-authored by Amory B. Lovins, or which include a foreword by him:[3]

  • Eryri, the Mountains of Longing San Francisco, Friends of the Earth, 1972. (with Philip Evans) ISBN 978-0-8415-0129-4. 181 p.
  • Openpit Mining London : Earth Island, 1973. ISBN 978-0-85644-020-5. 118 p.
  • World Energy Strategies: Facts, Issues, and Options London : Friends of the Earth Ltd. for Earth Resources Research Ltd., 1975. 131 p.  ISBN 978-0-88410-601-2.
  • Nuclear power: Technical Bases for Ethical Concern (1975, 2nd edition). 39 p.  ISBN 978-0-9503273-6-5
  • Soft Energy Paths: Towards a Durable Peace San Francisco : Friends of the Earth International, 1977 231p. ISBN 0-06-090653-7
  • The Energy Controversy: Soft Path Questions and Answers (1979) ISBN 978-0-913890-22-6
  • Is Nuclear Power Necessary?: Energy Papers No. 3 : Friends of the Earth, London, May 1979, ISBN 0905966198
  • Non-Nuclear Futures: The Case for an Ethical Energy Strategy (with John H. Price) San Francisco, 1980. 223p. ISBN 978-0-06-090777-8
  • A Golden Thread: 2500 Years of Solar Architecture & Technology (1980) ASIN: B000MWEXMC
  • Energy/War, Breaking the Nuclear Link San Francisco : Friends of the Earth, 1981 161p. ISBN 978-0-913890-44-8
  • Least-Cost Energy: Solving the CO2 Problem Andover, Mass. : Brick House Pub. Co., 1982 184p. ISBN 978-0-931790-36-2
  • Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security (with L Hunter Lovins) Andover, Mass. : Brick House, 1982 re-released in 2001. 486p. ISBN 0-931790-28-X
  • The First Nuclear World War (with Patrick O'Heffernan; L Hunter Lovins) New York : Morrow, 1983. 444 p ISBN 978-0-09-155830-7
  • Energy Unbound: A Fable for America's Future (with L Hunter Lovins; Seth Zuckerman) San Francisco : Sierra Club Books, 1986. 390 p ISBN 0-87156-820-9
  • Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings (1991) ISBN 978-0-918249-09-8
  • Reinventing Electric Utilities: Competition, Citizen Action, and Clean Power (1996) ISBN 978-1-55963-455-7
  • Factor Four: Doubling Wealth – Halving Resource Use: A Report to the Club of Rome (1997) ISBN 978-1-85383-407-3
  • Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (2000) ISBN 1-85383-763-6
  • Small is Profitable: The Hidden Economic Benefits of Making Electrical Resources the Right Size (2003) ISBN 1-881071-07-3
  • The Natural Advantage Of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation And Governance in the 21st Century (2004) ISBN 1-84407-121-9
  • Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profit, Jobs and Security (2005) ISBN 1-84407-194-4 (Available Online in PDF)
  • Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run: A Call to Save the Earth (2007) ISBN 978-1-57805-138-0
  • The Essential Amory Lovins (2011) ISBN 978-1-84971-226-2
  • Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era (2011) ISBN 978-1-60358-371-8

Non-English

  • Faktor vier. Doppelter Wohlstand – halbierter Verbrauch (1997) ISBN 978-3-426-77286-7
  • Facteur 4 : deux fois plus de bien-être en consommant deux fois moins de ressources: Rapport au Club de Rome (1997) ISBN 978-2-904082-67-2
  • Öko-Kapitalismus: Die industrielle Revolution des 21. Jahrhunderts (2002) ISBN 978-1-4000-3941-8

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Amory Lovins: Energy Analyst and Environmentalist". MOTHER EARTH NEWS. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  2. ↑ "Amory Lovins". All American Speakers. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 The International Who's Who 2011, 74th edition, Routledge, 2010, p. 1259.
  4. ↑ Amory Lovins (Sep–Oct 2011). "Wonder in the Bewilderness". Harvard Magazine.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Lovins Bio Archived 2010-12-22 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. 1 2 Profile of the 2007 Blue Planet Prize Recipient Archived October 20, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ↑ Amory Lovins (1977). Soft Energy Paths, p. 220.
  8. ↑ Stanford Energy Lectures Archived 2012-01-17 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑ Most recently www.esource.com, www.fiberforge.com, and www.brightautomotive.com
  10. 1 2 Green, Joshua (July–August 2009). "The Elusive Green Economy". The Atlantic.
  11. 1 2 Amory Lovins (1977). Soft Energy Paths: Towards a Durable Peace ISBN 0-06-090653-7
  12. ↑ Lovins on the Soft Path: A Guide to the Film, RMI, 1985.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Lovins, Amory; Imran Sheikh; Alex Markevich (2009). "Nuclear Power:Climate Fix or Folly". Rocky Mountain Institute. p. 10. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 20 Oct 2012. All sources of electricity sometimes fail, differing only in how predictably, why, how often, how much, and for how long. Even the most reliable giant power plants are intermittent: they fail un-expectedly in billion-watt chunks, often for long periods.
  14. ↑ Amory Lovins (March 18, 2011). "With Nuclear Power, "No Acts of God Can Be Permitted"". Huffington Post.
  15. 1 2 John Vidal (18 February 2014). "Amory Lovins: energy visionary sees renewables revolution in full swing". The Guardian.
  16. 1 2 3 Amory B. Lovins. The Negawatt Revolution Archived February 22, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Across the Board, Vol. XXVII No. 9, September 1990, pp. 21–22.
  17. 1 2 Amory B. Lovins. The Negawatt Revolution Archived February 22, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Across the Board, Vol. XXVII No. 9, September 1990, p. 23.
  18. ↑ Hypercars, hydrogen, and the automotive transition Archived 2013-07-04 at the Wayback Machine. International Journal of Vehicle Design, Vol. 35, Nos. 1/2, 2004.
  19. ↑ Diesendorf, Mark (2007). Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy, UNSW Press, pp. 191–192.
  20. 1 2 What is a Hypercar Vehicle? Archived 2002-11-29 at the Library of Congress Web Archives from Hypercar.com
  21. ↑ Amory Lovins, Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era (2011) p. 251 ISBN 978-1-60358-371-8
  22. ↑ Jevons paradox
  23. ↑ https://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/programs/energy-and-climate/reinventing-fire-and-the-dream-of-efficiency
  24. ↑ Lenzen, M., (2009), Current state of development of electricity-generating technologies – A literature review. Integrated Life Cycle Analysis, Dept. of Physics, University of Sydney.
  25. ↑ The Heinz Awards, Amory Lovins profile
  26. ↑ "Holcim Foundation Advisory Board". Archived from the original on 8 October 2010. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
  27. ↑ Carl Pope. The 2009 TIME 100: Amory Lovins TIME magazine, April 30, 2009.
  28. ↑ Claus Hecking and Petra Pinzler (17 March 2016). "Die Politik sollte steuern, die Wirtschaft rudern" [The policy should steer and the economy should row]. Zeit Online. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
  29. ↑ Iconoclast Gets Consultant Fees To Tell Big Oil It's Fading Fast
  30. ↑ "Reinventing Energy in China". Asia Society. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
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