6 January

Coal, oil and gas are all forms of solar energy. All are dead animals and plants, who got their energy directly from the sun, via photosynthesis. But concentrated over millions of years, which is why they have such a huge energy density. We’ve burned all of that energy in the space of only a few hundred years, we’re time-eaters. What’s remarkable about engineering today is that renewable energy technologies can match the same amount of energy, in real-time. No need to wait a few million years to accumulate it. And no pollution or noise, and no need to dig anything up. It’s available everywhere, to everybody.