Background
Lovins, Amory Bloch was born on November 13, 1947 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States. Son of Gerald Hershel and Miriam Lovins.
(Amory Lovins is a justifiably renowned physicist and envi...)
Amory Lovins is a justifiably renowned physicist and environmentalist who promotes energy-use and energy-production ideas based on conservation, efficiency, use of renewable energy-sources, and generating energy near where it is actually used as opposed to huge centralized capital-intensive megaprojects like nuclear power plants. He may be best known for being co-founder and chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute or being credited with his work on the design on an ultra-efficient automobile, the Hypercar. Soft Energy Paths is about ideas which have become much more familiar since its publication back in 1977 -- critiques of the "hard energy path" he describes as involving inefficient liquid-fuel automotive transport and centralized electricity generating facilities, often burning fossil fuels or using nuclear fission, technologies that waste huge amounts of energy and are enormously capital-intensive, along with advocacy of "soft energy technologies " such as solar, wind, biofuels, geothermal, etc. This book may be considered outdated (published in 1977) and some of its predictions seem quaint (he talks about oil prices rising to $30 a barrel) but, having read this book, I believe that Lovins' ideas are fundamental to a general understanding and conceptual overview of why we need to move away from capital-intensive, ultra-high-tech energy solutions toward sustainable technologies and conservation measures. These ideas have now become widely popular, but for the serious student of energy policy, this book is a good source of very detailed thinking and extensive footnotes. The book is absolutely jam-packed with informational tidbits such as the following example quoted from page 41: "The fifth type of economy available to small systems arises from mass production. Consider...the 100-odd million cars in the U.S. In round numbers, each car probably has an average cost of less than $4,000 and a shaft power of 100 kilowatts (134 horsepower).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060906537/?tag=2022091-20
(For those wishing to play a responsible role in shaping e...)
For those wishing to play a responsible role in shaping energy decisions now being made around the world. Amory Lovins provides a great store of vital information. World Energy Strategies avoids easy and canonically received answers, concentrating on a careful explanation of technical assessment regarding the nature and magnitutde of constraints upon our already inadequate energy resources. Within that context, lovins suggests where the merits may lie in technical disputes and shows not ony what energy options exist for the long term but also what short-term actions must be avoided if we are to preserve those options. "The main reason for Lovin's importance is that he has managed to redefine the energy problem, and thereby to change the frame of reference of a large number of technical debates. He has first-rate credentials as a nuclear physicist and, in his words, a former high technologist." He is familiarwith a staggering body of recent literature on energy. He writes clearly and often eloquently. All of these things help, but his appeal is that he has managed to define a pattern against which a jumble of technical choices can be compared and evaluated" - Fred D. Baldwin THE NATION
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060907789/?tag=2022091-20
Lovins, Amory Bloch was born on November 13, 1947 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States. Son of Gerald Hershel and Miriam Lovins.
Student, Harvard University, 1964-1965, 66-67; student, Magdalen College, Oxford, England, 1967-1969; Master of Arts, University of Oxford, Oxford, 1971; Doctor of Science (honorary), Bates College, 1979; Doctor of Science (honorary), Williams College, 1981; Doctor of Science (honorary), Kalamazoo College, 1983; Doctor of Science (honorary), University Maine, 1985; Doctor of Laws (honorary), Ball State University, 1983; D of Environmental Science (honorary), Unity College, 1992.
Junior research fellow, Merton College, Oxford, England, 1969-1971;
British representative, policy advisor, Friends of the Earth, San Francisco, 1971-1984;
regent's lecturer, University of California, Berkeley and Riverside, 1978, 81;
vice-president, director research, Rocky Mountain Institute, Old Snowmass, Colorado, since 1982. Government and industrial energy consultant, since 1971. Visiting professor Dartmouth College, 1982.
Distinguished visiting professor U. Colorado, 1982. Principal technical consultant E Source, since 1989. Principal The Lovins Group, since 1994.
(Amory Lovins is a justifiably renowned physicist and envi...)
(For those wishing to play a responsible role in shaping e...)
Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science, World Academy Art and Science, Lindisfarne Assn. Member Federation American Scientists, American Physical Society, Society Automotive Engineering, American Solar Energy Society, International Association Energy Economists.
Married L. Hunter Sheldon, September 6, 1979.