Keeping the lights on : towards sustainable electricity / Walt Patterson.

Originally published: 2007. With new preface.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [185]-189) and index.

We are making a mess of energy. What we're doing with it is leaving people in the dark and endangering the planet. But we could do much better. Keeping The Lights On shows how. In immediate, accessible everyday language it describes a different way to think about energy, what we want from it and how we get it. We can begin with electricity - how we use it, produce it, and pay for it. Traditional electricity is a century old, obsolete and overdue for improvement. But we keep getting it wrong. The decisions that governments and companies are now taking are making matters worse, missing opportunities all over the world. That could change rapidly. Electric options are burgeoning. Innovative technologies, novel finances and healthier business relations offer cleaner, more convenient, more stable systems, pointing the way to sustainable electricity services. But the evolution is much too slow. Too many governments, too many companies, too many people cling stubbornly to out-of-date assumptions and mindsets. Keeping The Lights On challenges these sterile and damaging misconceptions, with an exhilarating vision of a brighter future. We can make energy use more reliable, more equitable, and more sustainable, for ourselves and our children, starting with electricity, starting now.