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Brittle Power
''Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security'' is a 1982 book by Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, prepared originally as a Pentagon study and re-released in 2001 following the September 11 attacks. The book argues that the U.S. domestic energy infrastructure is very vulnerable to disruption, whether by accident or malice, often even more so than US technology is vulnerable to disruption of the imported oil supply. According to the authors, a resilient energy system is feasible, costs less, works better, and is favoured in the market, but is rejected by U.S. policy. In the preface to the 2001 edition, Lovins explains that these themes are still very current. Vulnerability to large-scale failures Lovins argues that the United States has for decades been running on energy that is "brittle" (easily shattered by accident or malice) and that this poses a grave and growing threat to national security, life, and liberty. Lovins explains that this danger comes not from ho ...
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Amory B
Amory may refer to: Places * Amory, Mississippi **Amory Lock **Amory School District * Amory-Ticknor House, Boston *Amory Hall (Boston) * Vance W. Amory International Airport, island of Nevis Other uses *Amory Adventure Award, a Canadian Venturer award *''The Amory Wars'', a science fiction comic book series See also *Amory (name) Amory is both an English language, English given name – derived from the Old German name Amalric via the French language, French form Amaury (other), Amaury – and a surname derived from it. Given name * Slats Gill, real name Amory Gi ...
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Megaprojects And Risk
''Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition'' is a 2003 book by Bent Flyvbjerg, Nils Bruzelius, and Werner Rothengatter, published by Cambridge University Press. According to chief economist and director of transportation policy at Infrastructure Management Group, Inc., Porter K. Wheeler, "this book makes an important contribution to understanding the infrastructure development process worldwide, with focus on megaprojects." The ''New Scientist'' wrote upon publication, "Love them or loathe them, megaprojects capture the imagination. hisdamning analysis concentrates on a series of financial nightmares that should bring even the most casual reader out in a sweat." Overview "Megaprojects" is the term applied to multibillion-dollar infrastructure developments such as massive dams and bridges, and to elaborate railways and highways. The book identifies a "megaprojects paradox," pointing out that more of these projects are being implemented, but such projects typically perform very ...
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Vulnerability Of Nuclear Plants To Attack
The vulnerability of nuclear plants to deliberate attack is of concern in the area of nuclear safety and security. Nuclear power plants, civilian research reactors, certain naval fuel facilities, uranium enrichment plants, fuel fabrication plants, and even potentially uranium mines are vulnerable to attacks which could lead to widespread radioactive contamination. The attack threat is of several general types: commando-like ground-based attacks on equipment which if disabled could lead to a reactor core meltdown or widespread dispersal of radioactivity; and external attacks such as an aircraft crash into a reactor complex, or cyber attacks. The United States 9/11 Commission has said that nuclear power plants were potential targets originally considered for the September 11, 2001 attacks. If terrorist groups could sufficiently damage safety systems to cause a core meltdown at a nuclear power plant, and/or sufficiently damage spent fuel pools, such an attack could lead to widespread ...
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Soft Energy Technology
Soft energy technologies may be seen as ''appropriate'' renewable technologies.The soft energy path
Soft energy technologies are not simply renewable energy technologies, as there are many technologies which are not regarded as "soft". The character string including "Soft Energy" is a registered trademark of Soft Energy Controls Inc. in Japan (JP (Japan), 28.12.2018, 6110341.).


Definition

More specifically, soft energy technologies have five defining characteristics.Lovins, 1977, pp.38-39 They rely on

Soft Energy Path
In 1976, energy policy analyst Amory Lovins coined the term soft energy path to describe an alternative future where energy efficiency and appropriate renewable energy sources steadily replace a centralized energy system based on fossil and nuclear fuels. Background 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. The first, supported by U.S. policy, promised a future of steadily increasing reliance on dirty 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's ideas. Soft vs hard Lovins viewed th ...
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Renewable Energy Commercialization
Renewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are already mature and economically competitive, include biomass, hydroelectricity, geothermal power and heat. Second-generation technologies are market-ready and are being deployed at the present time; they include solar heating, photovoltaics, wind power, solar thermal power stations, and modern forms of bioenergy. Third-generation technologies require continued R&D efforts in order to make large contributions on a global scale and include advanced biomass gasification, hot-dry-rock geothermal power, and ocean energy.International Energy Agency (2007)''Renewables in global energy supply: An IEA facts sheet'' (PDF)OECD, 34 pages. As of 2012, renewable energy accounts for about half of new nameplate electrical capacity installed and costs are continuing to fall. Public policy and political ...
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List Of Power Outages
This is a list of notable wide-scale power outages. To be included, the power outage must conform to of the following criteria: * The outage must not be planned by the service provider. * The outage must affect at least 1k people. * The outage must last at least one hour. * There must be at least 1,000,000 person-hours of disruption. For example: * 1,000 people affected for 1,000 hours (42 days) or more would be included; fewer than 1,000 people would not be, regardless of duration. * One million people affected for a minimum of one hour would be included; if the duration were less than one hour, it would not, regardless of number of people. * 10,000 people affected for 100 hours, or 100,000 for 10 hours would be included. Largest Longest This method is a formula that multiplies the number of hours by the population affected and doesn't reflect the nominal time in hours that the outages lasted. 1960–1969 1965 On the evening of November 9, the Northeast blackout o ...
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Energy Security And Renewable Technology
The environmental benefits of renewable energy technologies are widely recognised, but the contribution that they can make to energy security is less well known. Renewable technologies can enhance energy security in electricity generation, heat supply, and transportation. Energy security Access to cheap energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies. However, the uneven distribution of fossil fuel supplies among countries, and the critical need to widely access energy resources, has led to significant vulnerabilities. Threats to global energy security include political instability of energy producing countries, manipulation of energy supplies, competition over energy sources, attacks on supply infrastructure, as well as accidents and natural disasters. Energy security, therefore, has become fundamental from many perspectives, and is being therefore increasingly at the centre of legal and policy issues linked to social, economic, and development matters. The Fu ...
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Energy Conservation
Energy conservation is the effort to reduce wasteful energy consumption by using fewer energy services. This can be done by using energy more effectively (using less energy for continuous service) or changing one's behavior to use less service (for example, by driving less). Energy conservation can be achieved through energy efficiency, which has a number of advantages, including a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a smaller carbon footprint, and cost, water, and energy savings. Energy conservation is an essential factor in building design and construction. It has increased in importance since the 1970s, as 40% of energy use in the U.S. is in buildings. Recently, concern over the effects of climate change and global warming has emphasized the importance of energy conservation. Energy can only be transformed from one form to another, such as when heat energy is converted into vehicle motive power or when water flow's kinetic energy is converted into electricity in hydroelectr ...
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Efficient Energy Use
Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the process of reducing the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a building allows it to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a thermal comfort. Installing light-emitting diode bulbs, fluorescent lighting, or natural skylight windows reduces the amount of energy required to attain the same level of illumination compared to using traditional incandescent light bulbs. Improvements in energy efficiency are generally achieved by adopting a more efficient technology or production process or by application of commonly accepted methods to reduce energy losses. There are many motivations to improve energy efficiency. Decreasing energy use reduces energy costs and may result in a financial cost saving to consumers if the energy savings offset any additional costs of implementing an energy-efficient technology. Reducing energy use is also seen as a s ...
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Aurora Experiment
Idaho National Laboratory ran the Aurora Generator Test in 2007 to demonstrate how a cyberattack could destroy physical components of the electric grid. The experiment used a computer program to rapidly open and close a diesel generator's circuit breakers out of phase from the rest of the grid, thereby subjecting the engine to abnormal torques and ultimately causing it to explode. This vulnerability is referred to as the ''Aurora Vulnerability''. This vulnerability is especially a concern because most grid equipment supports using Modbus and other legacy communications protocols that were designed without security in mind. As such, they do not support authentication, confidentiality, or replay protection. This means that any attacker that can communicate with the device can control it and use the Aurora Vulnerability to destroy it. Experiment To prepare for the experiment, the researchers procured and installed a 2.25 MW (3000 horsepower) generator and connected it to the su ...
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Winning The Oil Endgame
''Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs and Security'' is a 2005 book by Amory B. Lovins, E. Kyle Datta, Odd-Even Bustnes, Jonathan G. Koomey, and Nathan J. Glasgow, published by the Rocky Mountain Institute. It presents an independent, transdisciplinary analysis of four ways to reduce petroleum dependence in the United States: *Using oil more efficiently, through smarter technologies that wring more (and often better) services from less oil (pp. 29–102). *Substituting for petroleum fuels other liquids made from biomass or wastes (pp. 103–111). *Substituting saved natural gas for oil in uses where they’re interchangeable, such as furnaces and boilers (pp. 111–122). *Replacing oil with hydrogen made from non-oil resources (pp. 228–242). Problems and solutions The authors explain that the problems of oil dependence are manageable, suggesting that oil dependence is a problem we need no longer have. The proposed solutions to oil depende ...
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