Amory Lovins



Amory Lovins (born November 13, 1947) is an American physicist, environmental scientist, writer, and Chairman/Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute.

Quotes

 * Facts are more mundane than fantasies, but a better basis for conclusions.
 * Salon.com, 05/26/05


 * If you ask me, it'd be little short of disastrous for us to discover a source of clean, cheap, abundant energy because of what we would do with it.
 * (1977)


 * ...new nuclear plants are simply unfinanceable in the private capital market, and the technology will continue to die of an incurable attack of market forces—all the faster in competitive markets. This is true not just in the U.S., where the last order was in 1978 and all orders since 1973 were cancelled, but globally.
 * Winning the Oil Endgame, p. 258


 * There are two kinds of micropower. One is co-gen and combined heat and power. That was about two-thirds of the new capacity and three-quarters of the new electricity last year. The rest was distributed or decentralized renewables, which was a $38 billion U.S. global market last year for selling equipment. That's wind, solar, geothermal, small hydro and biomass.... Micropower surpassed nuclear power in worldwide installed capacity in 2002, and surpassed nuclear in electricity generated per year just in the last few months.
 * An interview with Amory Lovins re: Nuclear Power


 * A widely heralded view holds that nuclear power is experiencing a dramatic worldwide revival and vibrant growth, because it’s competitive, necessary, reliable, secure, and vital for fuel security and climate protection. That’s all false. In fact, nuclear power is continuing its decades-long collapse in the global marketplace because it’s grossly uncompetitive, unneeded, and obsolete—so hopelessly uneconomic that one needn’t debate whether it’s clean and safe; it weakens electric reliability and national security; and it worsens climate change compared with devoting the same money and time to more effective options.
 * The Nuclear Illusion p. 1. (May 2008)


 * Variable but forecastable renewables (wind and solar cells) are very reliable when integrated with each other, existing supplies and demand. For example, three German states were more than 30 percent wind-powered in 2007—and more than 100 percent in some months. Mostly renewable power generally needs less backup than utilities already bought to combat big coal and nuclear plants' intermittence.
 * Missing the Market Meltdown (May 2008)


 * When asked if we have enough time to prevent catastrophe, she'd always say that we have exactly enough time -- starting now
 * Amory Lovins' eulogy for Donella Meadows


 * The markets make a good servant but a bad master, and a worse religion


 * Fire made us human, fossil fuels made us modern, but now we need a new fire that make us safe,healthy, and durable. 2006-5-12