Conversations with History - Amory Lovins

[daxtonbrown]

Amory Lovins is a pompous ass who produces diddly squat. I always wonder how he scams everyone so easily.

[pujoe]

LOVINS: "If you don't understand how things are connected, quite often the cause of problems is solutions." : )

[lucasfencl]

@juscurious: Amory cites that de-centralized power systems passed nuclear power in electrical output per year in ~2002 in his 2008 writing "Forget Nuclear" available in the energy and resource library section of the rocky mountain institute website. He states in the conclusion that official power usage databases lack de-centralized power system energy sources. Wikipedia cites nuclear share of world energy supply is 15%. Perhaps, nuclear power usage is not as dominant sometimes claimed.

[conoba]

I only know this guy from reading one of his books on odd pschological disorders in the 90s.

I really need to learn more about all the things he worked on and written about.

[paul8kangas]

If you want to stop Nuclear Power, then you need to make Solar Berm , stand alone, housing, in the US faster than the Nuclear Industry can con stupid Congressmen into building more nuclear power.

[Piperman]

The man is a legend. He's doing fantastic work, and is so modest.

Excellent Video. Thanks for posting.

[juscurious]

He's a legend in his own mind and a legend at self-promotion. I waing for a list of his achievements. What has he done. Inventions? Energy Saving devices? New energy breakthroughs? Let's hear them. Enlighten me. I want concrete achievements not awards from self-serving organizations. MacArthur & Heinz are much more about politics than technology and I know that for sure. The rest of the awards, I've never heard of ? I'm waiting. Nothing but hype in my opinion.

[ExperienceCounts2]

@juscurious What did Socrates accomplish? Where are Einstein's inventions? What did Feynman ever create? Two lessons you could stand to learn: 1) ideas, vision and food for thought are valuable 2) he's accomplished more than you ever have. Ever hear the old saying, no child ever grows up dreaming of being a critic? If you can't produce intelligent counter arguments or enlighten us further on the topic of discussion then why comment at all? He has ideas, they're worth considering.

[juscurious]

I have a question for you; were you born that stupid or did you have to train for it. I've accomplished plenty in my life but's not the issue here. Lovins is a charlatan. He's no ideas, inventions, or anything else other than vague platitudes. Nuclear Power is absolutely critical for the future of US. Lovins is against it contrary to everyone else in energy industry. How do we get power for our industries? Lovins is a fraud who doesn't have a clue. Awards don't mean jack in this day & age.

[ExperienceCounts2]

Well then, if you've accomplished plenty and he has accomplished nothing then why are all these people watching his videos instead of yours? If you can't produce evidence or logic proving your ideas are more valid than his, again I ask, why comment at all? And by the way, the more you call people stupid the more you advertise how shallow your claims are. Evidence and logical counter-arguments count, ad hominems do not. Isn't his observation about fully subsidized yet no private investment true?

[juscurious]

You can't even get to the jist of the question. Lovins has no new ideas on energy. Peroid. You can't name them because they don't exist. We get vague generalities. You turn the topic back on me. That's not what we are talking about. We have 500 characters here. Lovins dismissal of Nuclear Power as the prime source of Electrical Power reveals him for the fraud he is. What sources does he advocate? Solar? What do you do for the 75% of the day when sun doesn't shine or the many days with no sun?

[ExperienceCounts2]

His statements on nuclear power are about how it isn't economically feasible. You haven't addressed that. All you've done is erect a straw man to knock down, pretending that he claims we can switch off all other sources of power if we put up a few solar panels. While you're setting up straw men for the big energy companies the rest of the world is moving forward. Google "Tianhuangping Pumped-Storage Hydro Plant". So sorry, no nuclear plants required if we produce and store it locally.

[juscurious]

You say the rest of the world is going forward? Yes they are. The ones with the technology are building Nuclear Power Plants. Not economical? Rubbish. They are not only the safest but the cheapest. Expensive- only because of the lawsuits filed by Lunatics in the environmental movement. They delay the projects jacking up costs and increasing costs to the point it isn't economical. Other countries don't have this problem. France for example gets 80% of electrical power from nuclear.

[juscurious]

Tianhuangping Pumped-Storage Hydro Plant? Nowhere do I say I'm against Hydro Power Plants-where you can build them. In California you cannot build any new plants & that's true also for whole West Coast. The enviro nuts have stopped them. China doesn't have this problem. Plus not every area is suited for Hydro Power. In the Midwest you don't have the geography for Hydro Power. The same is true for almost the entire South. Still waiting for ideas from Lovins. Been on hold for a while.

[ExperienceCounts2]

Reading comprehension running a little low today? Missed the "Pumped-Storage" part? That's the answer to your "what do you do when it's dark out". You store the energy exactly the same way it's currently done. For "30 years in the energy biz" you seem to be amazingly ignorant of a storage method that is used on large and small scales all around the world. Your argument fails both as a straw man and as a standalone argument.

[juscurious]

You seem to be getting dumber with each post. I suggest upping the medication. Pumped Storage? Just how? Yes there are places that pump water to higher evalations during non-peak load hours only to release them during the peak hours. This has been known about for a long time. You need the right geography for this. The plants for China aren't in operation yet. No one has yet developed a practical method of storing large amounts of electrical energy. Give me an example of where this exists?

[ExperienceCounts2]

@juscurious Hmm, my earlier reply seems to have disappeared. In any case, I think the label "dumb" should be reserved for people who watch "Conversations with HISTORY" and demand new ideas instead of a retrospective. There are multiple pumped storage plants in Asia currently operating. Nuclear plants have stricter geographic requirements than hydro does. You can keep the ad hominems, good luck with the attitude. рока.

[juscurious]

Just answer one question for me. How do you store large quantities of electrical energy? Don't tell me about pumping water to higher elevations. That's not storing electrical energy. Where are there plants in the United States or Europe that are doing this? Name one and give me some references. I like to check on this. I don't think you can because there aren't any using this technology that I'm aware of. Just how are they storing this energy? Maybe Lovins knows and will give us the answer?

[ExperienceCounts2]

@juscurious I'm sorry dear, I haven't any inclination to respond to straw man or red herring arguments. There is no requirement to store electrical energy directly, energy can be stored in other forms and converted back to electricity later. Good luck on learning how to use google to check on those.

[Mike2008and2008]

WoW....Very nice train of ideas...but how does the eyes of others be open as to the connectivity of everything?

[steevmoor]

RMI co-founder Amory Lovins has received nine honorary doctorates, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Heinz, Lindbergh, Right Livelihood ("Alternative Nobel"), World Technology, and Time Hero for the Planet awards, the Benjamin Franklin and Happold Medals, the Nissan, Shingo, Mitchell, and Onassis Prizes, and honorary membership of the American Institute of Architects.

These institutions are filled with people who are not "the ignorant media". I trust them more than you, actually...

[juscurious]

Give me some examples of what he's achieved to receive these awards. Inventions? Energy Breakthroughs? He simply states the obvious. Make cars lighter with composites. Sure that's possible but at what cost? Composites are very expensive. Solar Power? Sure for 6-7hrs on a good day. What about the rest of the time? Where are we going to put all these panels? What about wintertime when no sun is available. Should we freeze to death? That's OK. If these things were easy they would be done already.

[steevmoor]

Brilliant... brilliant man...

wow

[juscurious]

No he's not a brillant man, he's actually one of the biggest frauds around

[dogbertbc]

juscurious,

Do you mind elaborating on that?

[juscurious]

dogbertbc, Don't mind elaborating on this at all. Lovins is a fraud in my opinion because he makes unrealistic assumptions when he talks about alternative energy. I've worked in the energy industry 30 years and I can tell you Lovins makes things up. Wind and Solar are currently less than 1% of our energy. Look it up. We cannot get the majority of our energy from them-too intermittent. We must have nuclear. He's against nuclear. Madness. Sorry but I've got only 500 words. Lovins is wrong.

[Ghurshah]

Excellent.

[berkeleybrett]

Very keen insight at about 4:00...

I figured out pretty early one of the great unwritten secrets: that there's hardly any subject that a smart motivated person can't learn as much about in six months as most people in the field know....

[josetjack]

Awesome! Amory rocks!

[sugarpuddin88]

Wow! Looking at RMI's web site: awesome!

I would love to work with these guys in the future over various problems in the Caribbean