Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

Dreams versus Reality: exploring the gap between what people want renewables to deliver and what they can deliver.

James Spencer, Portland Analytics

James Spencer gave a version of this talk to York Cafe Scientifique in 2015 and after a further eight years offers an update on where we are with providing renewable energy.

We are holding this Cafe Scientifique session on Wednesday 24th January 2024 from 7pm, talk starting at 7.30pm, in the “Den”, Mickelgate Social, 148-150 Mickelgate on the corner of Bar Lane, York.

Click below to download the presentation and ignore the old date on slide 1 and includes extra slide 15 on “Home Heating”.

Cafe Scientifique Revisit Jan 24

Member’s report:

The talk was a re-assessment of the conclusions drawn by James in his previous presentation of “Dreams vs Reality” given as a Café Sci in September 2015. The dreams and the reality refer to world-wide energy provision technologies against a background of climate change, population growth, business, and politics. In 2015 James discussed the prospects for the development and utilisation of different energy sources, renewable and fossil, in the light of these societal changes. He returned to show us how accurate his predictions had been (pretty accurate overall) and he updated his predictions in the light of developments over the last nine years. He divided his talk into five topic areas, mobility, biofuels, wind power, tidal power, and solar power. Using the available data, he described the role of each, the current situation, and his thoughts for the future. A final topic not considered in 2015 was the role of heat pumps in domestic heating, highlighting the UK’s lamentable performance in their adoption. He finished by updating his 2015 conclusions, two of which bear inclusion here. Best of intentions do not equate to a viable energy policy. Meaningless targets (e.g. net zero) only hinder progress.

Andy Marvin