How should we get our energy?

Abstract

An energy crisis is imminent. We have to find substitutes for fossil fuels if we are to keep healthy, sustain the world's ecology and simply go on having the energy we want. Yet, especially in Britain, we have frittered away the last decades in frivolous political dogma while we neglected research on the uses of renewable energy in which we used to be leaders. This article is the attempt of a physicist to go back to first principles and get the boundary conditions of the problem right.

Key Words:

• Renewable energy
• Wave power
• Nuclear power