Book review: Tom Rand, Kick The Fossil Fuel Habit
Tom Rand, an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, innovator, philosopher and MaRS Discovery District advisor, just launched his book, Kick The Fossil Fuel Habit: 10 Clean Technologies to Save Our World. It talks about things like solar power, wind power, hydro power, biofuels, smart buildings, and more that are leading the way to a sustainable future. Tom believes technology already exists to kick the fossil fuel habit. Not only is a world powered by clean technologies possible – it’s absolutely necessary!
Who is Tom Rand?
- Lead Cleantech Advisor at MaRS, Toronto
- Successful Entrepreneur – founder Voice Courier Inc.
- Venture Capitalist – VCi Green Funds
- Innovator – co-founder, Planet Traveler, a low-carbon building
- TEDtalker – TEDxTO (Toronto) Sept 2009
Both in the YouTube clip for the book and in his TED talk, Tom speaks about possible replacement to fossil fuels we are hooked on. His confidence that we can kick the habit is contagious. Just a few solar farms in Sahara can produce enough electricity for the entire world! Instead of burning coal, use geoexchange technology that can reduce energy use and carbon emissions by up to 70%, and lowers peak electrical load in the summer months. Tom is currently implementing this technology by converting a derelict building at 357 College St., Toronto, into a green hotel.
Sounds great. However I am a pessimist, or an extremely cautious person (call it what you like), and I have been taught by experience that, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. As some of you may know, it is actually possible to make a gravity-powered clock, for example. The only catch is that manufacturing this clock will be a lot more expensive than a regular alarm clock and a lifetime supply of batteries.
I will be happy if someone explains to me that I am mistaken and the obstacles to Tom’s suggestions that I see are no obstacles at all.
Tom suggests, instead of burning coal, to drill about 10 km or 6 miles down to extract heat and use heat exchange to produce electricity.
Isn’t 6 miles a little too much to drill routinely? Won’t the heat dissipate before getting to the surface? What happens to the heat balance if you have too many holes in the earth crust, and how many is too many? How does the cost of drilling and geothermal well maintenance compare to the cost of the energy we hope to obtain?
Another suggestion of Tom’s is putting up a solar farm in Sahara. Great, but do we already have a technology to transfer all this almost-free electricity to the places where it is actually needed? And if we do, why indeed are we still using coal?
********************************
By the way, if you have an invention, would like to commercialize it but do not know where to start, you should contact Kevin Downing at MaRS or fill in the MaRS Discovery Document online. And the advisors from MaRS will pick it up from there!
April 23, 2010 - 8:20 am
These are certainly words to live by: “if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is” -
A healthy dose of skepticism is almost a requirement now. If you look at the solar power “science” the economics of it is based largely on government subsidy. See First solar, for example.
That’s where venture cap fits in. Maybe a company needs seed funding to get started, or needs subsidy…but for how long? And will it pay off? In the case of solar power, the cost/mW keeps declining (comparable to coal energy) but so does the sales per unit for these companies. That right now is THE challenge in the solar power industry.
April 23, 2010 - 10:15 pm
Chris, thank you for your comment! I would really want to believe what Tom Rand says, and he sounds credible, with all his experience and credentials and all. But if this is indeed such a simple and clear-cut case, someone would have picked it up and implemented it a long time ago.
Let’s see what happens with this green hotel Tom is now building. (I’d rather love to know what happens in the neighbourhood where geothermal exchange is implemented in many houses instead of one or two; what are the long-term consequences for the soil, its inhabitants (insects, bacteria) and the vegetation, for example?
June 11, 2010 - 5:13 pm
This is a copy of my post at YouTube at Rand’s book site, which some child or someone who needs a few clues has flagged as spam:
“Quote from a quote (or similar) from the book:
‘When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.’
(-John M. Richardson, Jr.?)
Here’s mine for fun:
‘When it comes to the future, there are some who let it happen, some who wonder what happened, and those who make a mess of it.’
justicedante wrote:
‘My four year old gets it.’
How about Bill Mollison?”
I far and away recommend Bill Mollison over Tom Rand.
October 26, 2010 - 10:57 am
Wow. What a useless review. If it sounds too good, it probably is? You could say that about any new technology ever introduced. If someone explained the technology behind cell phones twenty years ago, you would most likely have been the one to say “sounds good, but it’ll never work”. I have to wonder whether you actually read the book or not because every technology that is discussed in the book has been tried and proven. The point of the book is that it will be expensive, but necessary. Again, like all technologies, the more extensively it’s adopted, the cheaper it will get. If you want to dispute the claims he makes, why don’t you actually do a bit of research and dispute them with facts rather than with useless pessimism? Or did you – to no avail? I appreciate pessimism. I am a pessimist myself, but my pessimism stems from reviews like this and what it perpetuates. I have no reason to dispute any of the claims made by Mr. Rand and unless you give me a real reason to, I will recommend this book as insightful, well written and beautifully presented.
December 11, 2011 - 7:18 pm
I agree with Jeff here. Most of the technology in the book has been well-researched and is in use all over the world. Yes, there are some expensive costs associated with some projects, but there are also lots of worthwhile opportunities. I am in a graduate level sustainable systems program that teaches all the fundamentals including the physics and thermodynamics behind these processes and I can assure you they are for real. Heck, google search geothermal and you’ll see how possible it is to drill holes in the ground and use it to supplement heat.
This book is an excellent overview on sustainable ways to overcome fossil fuels. Take some time to look at it and do some other research before doubting the information.
February 2, 2012 - 10:54 am
I think the point of the book was missed in some of these comments and the review. It’s clearly a coffee table book, not a text book. The book provides a simplified, yet thorough, outline of what clean technologies are available to us and why we need to make the switch now. It provides a medium that like Glomerol quoted “my four year old gets it”. If remove all you biases and just read the book, you can’t help but think “well it just makes sense”. So yes in some ways, it may “sound too good to be true” and yes the issues discussed are way more complex in real life, however, that’s not the point of the book. It simply provides information in an easy-to-understand manner. If you want to understand the complexities behind why we aren’t making this switch…read it elsewhere…look at the news…this book isn’t the answer, it just has solutions.