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Motive and electrical energy has played a crucial role in human civilization. Since Ancient times, motive energy played a primary role in agricultural and industrial production as well as transportation. At that time, motive energy was…
Energy has been propelling the development of human civilization for millennia, and technologies acquiring energy beyond human and animal power have been continuously advanced and transformed. In 1964, the Kardashev Scale was proposed to…
The level of technological development of any civilization can be gaged in large part by the amount of energy they produce for their use, but also encompasses that civilization's stewardship of their home world. Following the Kardashev…
With the use of the appropriate technology, such as photovoltaics and seawater desalination, humans have the ability to sustainably increase their production of food and energy while minimising detrimental impacts on the Earth system.
Humanity is at a critical juncture, marked by rapid technological advances and the pursuit of higher civilization stages on the Kardashev scale. This study explores humanity's potential progression toward Type I and Type II civilizations,…
A transition to a fully global renewable energy infrastructure is potentially possible in no more than a few decades, even using current wind/solar technologies. We demonstrate that at its completion this transition would terminate…
Energy has always been the driving force in the technological and economic development of societies. The consumption of a significant amount of energy is required to provide basic living conditions of developed countries (heating,…
A quintessential source of heat, the Sun radiates toward the Earth a power ten thousand times greater than humanity's energy needs. Harnessing this energy bounty, however, requires capturing and converting sunlight. Today, this conversion…
The purpose of this study is to consider the near future of civilization in the framework of thermodynamics. Kardashev's proposal to evaluate the development of celestial civilizations by the amount of energy they are able to use was…
The chemical composition of the earths atmosphere far from equilibrium is unique in the solar system and has been attributed to the presence of widespread life. Here I show that this perspective can be quantified using non-equilibrium…
Much of today's sustainability discourse emphasizes efficiency, clean technologies, and smart systems, but largely underestimates fundamental physical constraints relating to energy-matter interactions. These constraints stem from the fact…
Energy crisis has forced many countries to think of a replacement for energy supply. Renewable energy sources as firendly environment sources play a pivotal role in producing clean energy for various sectors in industry. Gas emissions…
Utilisation of the material and energy resources of the Solar System will be essential for the development of a sustainable space economy and associated infrastructure. Science will be a major beneficiary of a space economy, even if its…
The energy transition is also about switching to electricity-based technologies such as heat pumps and electric mobility. They avoid heat as an intermediate step and are therefore much more efficient. This can significantly reduce the…
Some possible ways of the energy production with fusion reactions in the Sun was explored theoretically in the first half of this century. Nowadays it is a standard view that the Sun produces its energy on a uniform level. I point out, that…
As the 21st century progresses, photovoltaic technology is becoming a major provider of the worlds electricity, while effects of global climate change unfold. This development begs the question: is climate change affecting the energy…
Lack of electricity access is widespread in the developing world and associated with increased mortality, reduced educational levels, and economic and social disadvantages, especially among women. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development…
At any sustained positive growth rate of energy demand, depletion of all terrestrial energy resources, including non-renewable deuterium fusion and renewable solar, occurs within a remarkably compressed period. The time to depletion is…
Wind and solar electricity generation account for 14% of total electricity generation in the United States and are expected to continue to grow in the next decades. In low carbon systems, generation from renewable energy sources displaces…
The Sun is expected to increase its radiant output by about 10% per billion years. The rate at which the radius of the Earth's orbit would need to increase in order to keep the present value of the Sun's radiant flux at the Earth constant…