Rating: 
Summary: Energy for Rifkin's hydrogen economy?
Review: I'm probably not qualified to write a review - I haven't read the book, nor do I intend to. But I have read the 30 reviews (8 of them identical?) on this Amazon web page (Everyone together: a big "bravo" for Amazon). I read those reviews looking for one phrase: nuclear energy. I don't expect to find it in Rifkin, but I am surprised that the absence of that phrase was not noted by even a single reviewer. Briefly, wind mills and solar cells will simply not suffice to provide the energy needed by our industrial civilization. Even with hydrogen as a storage medium, as accurately noted by many of the reviewers. Nuclear fission is the only source of energy comparable in quantity and availability to coal, oil and natural gas. It already provides 20% of the electricity used in the US. and 17% in the world; it is clean and competitive, it produces a very small volume of waste which can be more easily managed than the waste (CO2) of fossil fuels. Well designed, well managed and well maintained nuclear power is just a safe as fossil power, in terms of loss of life and public health, if not safer. Readers would be well advised to look for solutions to the energy problem in
Megawatts and Megatons, by Garwin and Charpak,
The Environmental Case for Nuclear Power by Robert C. Morris,
Nuclear Power, Villain or Victim? by Max W. Carbon,
Nuclear Energy by Walter Scheider. For anyone who reads French: L'Nucleaire Avenir de l'Ecologie? by Bruno Comby. Not recommended is Tomorrow's Energy by Peter Hoffmann; Hoffmann dismisses nuclear energy with a quotation which antedates the
Chernobyl disaster, which, by the way, was rather less disastrous than many would have us believe.
Rating: 
Summary: A must read Introduction to the biggest problem we face
Review: It would be easy to criticize this book. 175 pages deal with problems, and only 75 with solutions. Furthermore, hydrogen is not a natural source of energy, but rather, an increasingly important means of storing and transporting energy. But such criticisms would not place this important book in proper context. The problems facing society are very real. We are running out of fossil fuels. We are exacerbating that problem by flagrant miscalculations of the costs and effects of fossil fuels, as well as miscalculation of how much remains. These miscalculations seem to be carried by a deep current of denial flowing throughout society. In this regard, our relationship to fossil fuels may be turning more into an addiction than a harnessing of nature's abundance. Rifkin distils and presents the barest facets of the problem in an engaging and powerful presentation. There can be little doubt that hydrogen, though not the next source of energy, will become a rallying cry, and an icon of renewable energy in the public mind. Rifkin is straightforward in explaining that hydrogen is not the source, but rather, the medium of the next big shift in energy technology. Thin treatment of solutions after a depressingly thick presentation of the problem accurately reflects the real dilemma. The problem is huge, and at this point in time, solutions are little more than a flickering hope. The Hydrogen Economy by Jeremy Rifkin is the opening salvo in a public debate that must widen and deepen quickly if we are to have even the slightest chance of a timely solution to what is looking more each year like a disasterous finale to the fossil fuel age. If taken litteraly, Rifkin's application of entropy to human society will seem strained to the thermodynamically astute. As a metaphore it is elegant. Clearly, Rifkin hopes, above all else, to promote the possibilities of hydrogen as a socioeconomic equalizer. I share this hope. But under the circumstances, its like hoping you'll have steak and eggs for breakfast as you watch the Titanic sink. I'll take a solution anyway we can get it. But first, we've got to open our eyes, face the problem, and discuss it. Reading this book is a good first step. Don't be surprised if there are a lot of negative reactions to this book. Everone feels uncomfortable when confronted while in denial. Its worse when the denial is collective and more so when it is global. You're not supposed to "feel good" about a book like this. Denying the conclusions is bound to be a frequent reaction, but its not a healthy reaction. It will undoubtedly be better recieved outside the US where fossil fuel addiction is less accute.
Rating: 
Summary: Important Topic, Poorly Executed
Review: Jeremy Rifkin's books address important topics related to
the social implications of technology. I have previously read
his book, "Entropy". Unfortunately in "The Hydrogen Economy" as well in "Entropy"
Rifkin does not seem to understand the topics that he addresses
in very much depth. Rifkin's analysis of the energy basis of civilizations and
specifically on the initial success of the Roman Empire and
later collapse as their attempts to maintain their power produced
progressively diminishing returns are interesting and very relevant to our current situation. He does a good job of explaining another very important topic,
"The End of Cheap Oil". This topic is from an article by Colin
Campbell and Jean H. Laherrère from the March 1998 Scientific
American. ... According to this theory global oil production follows
a roughly bell-shaped curve with the peak occurring when
approximately half the oil has been extracted. This model applies
both to individual wells and to global oil production. Based on
this model and the most reliable available data, global oil
production will peak and permanently and continuously decline
after that. The theory was was originally developed in the 1950's
by M. King Hubbert a prominent petroleum geologist with Shell and
the U.S. Geological Survey. In the middle 1950's Hubbert used
this theory to accurately predict the peak and decline of U.S.
oil production which occurred in 1970. Other books that cover "The End of Cheap Oil" and
resource depletion are:
Walter Youngquist - Geodestinies
Colin Campbell - The Coming Oil Crisis
The Party's Over - Richard Heinberg
Hubbert's Peak - Kenneth S. Deffeyes Unfortunately, in the final section of "The Hydrogen Economy"
Rifkin does a poor job of defining a hydrogen and fuel cell
replacement for our current energy system. He does at times admit
that hydrogen is an energy carrier and not a primary energy
source. However in most of this section of the book he acts as if
hydrogen were an energy source. His assertions that renewable energy sources such as solar
photovoltaic and wind will continuously decline in price to the
point where hydrogen can be produced at very low cost are not
credible and remind me of the assertion in the 1950's that
nuclear energy would be too cheap to meter. He makes an analogy to the Internet to support his proposal for a
distributed hydrogen economy. His analogy is weak. He ignores
the hundreds of billions of dollars that would be needed to
make the transition. He also ignores the huge environmental
impacts that would occur in manufacturing and installing such an
infrastructure worldwide. He completely ignores the most fundamental issue which is the
fundamental unsustainability of an economic system that depends
on continuous physical economic growth. He also ignores the very
low energy and materials efficiencies of our current economy. Two much better books addressing these issues are
The Eco-Economy - Lester Brown
Natural Capitalism - Paul Hawken, Amory and Hunter Lovins Overall this book has some value, but has fundamental flaws and
is too much of an uncritical promotional piece for hydrogen. Hydrogen and renewable energy can potentially make very
important contributions to environmental sustainability,
but Rifkin does not address them very well.
Rating:
Summary: Brave new energy world?
Review: Or a new shell game? The title of this book is a little misleading since most of the book is about the effect that energy has had on the rise and fall of human societies from hunter-gatherers through agriculturists and the Roman Empire to the ascendency of the United States in the 19th century and into the current world economy. Rifkin sees cheap energy and the high per capita use of it as a prime indicator of a flourishing society. He notes that Rome rose when it was able to commandeer energy sources from conquered lands in the form of tribute and slaves; but when the booty from military conquests began to fall to diminishing returns, Rome itself began to fall. He sees the same thing possibly happening to the United States in another but similar manner. He notes that US domestic oil production peaked in 1970. (p. 4) Whereas up until then, domestic production supplied most of the oil the United States used; since then we have become more and more dependent on foreign sources. He foresees a peak in world crude production sometime in the next decade or so, and after that a slide toward more and more expensive oil and more and more of our wealth flowing into the last bastion of crude reserves in primarily the Middle Eastern states. What to do about this? Hocus-pocus, usher in the hydrogen economy in which hydrogen fuel cells will replace not only gas from the pump but will generate electricity for home, farm and office. There is just one little catch: at current prices the cost of converting either gasoline, natural gas or water (all requiring energy, usually electrical power) is prohibitive. Rifkin de-emphasizes this little problem as he enthuses about how decentralized and how clean-burning will be the "decarbonized" hydrogen economy. Right now, according to Michael A. Peavey in his book, Fuel from Water: Energy Independence with Hydrogen, it costs $7.40 to create enough hydrogen fuel to equal the energy provided by one gallon of gasoline (at electricity costing $0.10 per Kwh). Rifkin does not go into this non-cost effectiveness to any great degree, partly because he believes both that the cost of conversion will go down and the price of oil will go up. A quick read might give the impression that one can use electricity to produce hydrogen from say water and use the hydrogen to create electricity or run engines with a net gain. Not so. The efficiency of the process of electrolysis (getting hydrogen from water) is about 50%. This is a big net loss. So why are automobile manufactures, oil companies and Jeremy Rifkin so excited about hydrogen technology? First and foremost of course hydrogen is clean burning. It does not produce any greenhouse gases that are leading to global warming. And second, when used in fuel cell technology there is the prospect that energy use and production will be decentralized allowing individuals and small organizations freedom from the vast infrastructure and top down organization that characterizes the oil industry today. Both of these advantages of hydrogen however depend on the use of renewable resources, wind, sun, downward running water, evaporation, the burning of biomass, etc. to isolate the hydrogen which is always tied up in molecules with other elements as in water, natural gas, oil, etc. So what the advantages accruing from the proposed brave new world of the hydrogen economy actually depend on is the same thing we cannot do today, that is, get the bulk of our energy from renewable resources. As others have pointed out, essentially hydrogen is an energy storage device. The initial energy must come from somewhere else. Although we definitely need storage devices that can be placed where we want them to be utilized even when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow, storage devices themselves are not an independent source of energy and cannot by themselves be the solution to our energy problems. Having said this, the book is still a very good read and an eye-opener about the coming end of the fossil fuel era, arriving at our doorsteps in just a few decades. Also Rifkin's speculations about the nature of the hydrogen economy are interesting and probably pertinent since the major car manufacturers and the major oil companies are already gearing up for the transformation. These mega-players in the energy game will dictate the rules in the years to come. They will use their existing infrastructures and their capital to ease the transformation for them and to maintain their power and profit margins. This is one of the salient points Rifkin makes in this book. The curious thing is, I'm not sure whether, amid all of his enthusiastic expression, he realizes what his message really is, namely that we are going to be burning fossil fuels and building nuclear plants well into the latter half of the 21st century. Note well this quote on page 189 from John Browne, the CEO of British Petroleum, making the "bullish" forecast that "50 percent" of world-wide energy demand "will be met by solar and other renewable resources by 2050." That, folks, is the bottom line: fifty percent by 2050, fuel cells or no fuel cells. The bottom line for this book is that it is readable, informative--even at times, fascinating--but not exactly what it purports to be. Read it and judge for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: Rifkin's crucial viewpoint one in a camp of three
Review: Reading this book one will be introduced to crucial infomation regarding the importance of fossil fuels in industrial societies, peak oil production, global warming, terrorism, and the fact that the remaining reserves are in the politically unstable middle east for which 9/11 should have been a major wake up call. According to Mr. Rifkin it is the transition into a hydrogen economy that is the answer to these major problems if any and that the time is now to start seriously building the infrastructure. While this book is a fantastic introduction and analysis of the issues, it is but one in a camp of three. In other words Mr. Rifkin's general pessimism of the current situation and optimism of a hydrogen economy is sandwiched in between those (generally geologists and physicists) who realize that peak oil is real but feel that a hydrogen economy is just too far away to make a smooth transition, and those (generally economists and CEO's) who feel that we have plenty of oil and will find more anyway and should continue our addiction for as long as possible. These three camps of thought came to light at the second annual peak oil conference in Paris this past May which is a good sign at least that the matter is being discussed. One can only hope that Rifkin is right and we are not too late for the transition.
Rating:
Summary: A noble idea, but Rifkin lacks a clear argument structure
Review: Rifkin is a academic with a penchant for writing books in a less-than-promising how-to mode. In this latest effort, he pushes his blueprint for the transformation of worldwide energy to a hydrogen model. This move will most probably be inevitable due to the dwindling supply of fossil fuels that, by definition, must come to an abrupt end. Rifkin indeed uses the majority of this book to talk about the geological, economic and political history of oil as he presses skeptics who resist oil's eventual end.
Despite the title, this book glues itself to the history of oil and the destabilizing effect dwindling supply will have on geopolitics. Rifkin has used the negative argument to push his hypothesis. He paints the costs of continuous extraction of oil, whether political (the increasing influence of Middle Eastern countries where the vast reserves are buried), economic (the increased costs of oil that will make energy an even more expensive proposition of developing nations), environmental (the burgeoning pollution that will come from extraction methods of oil types such as shale) or social (the increasing separation between energy have and have nots and the myriad repercussions from such a spilt). Thus, Rifkin sends us to his Utopian version of a hydrogen based energy economy, banking his argument on its numerous advantages over the status quo.
I have no doubt that our energy sources will have to change during the next century. Small, incremental steps have been taken in this regard but the necessary investments haven't taken place. Bush uttered an honorable statement in his most recent State of the Union address by pushing government investment, but his amount of investment ($1.2B) is relatively low for such an important issue. With the Gulf War costing a down payment of $75B, the public monies channeled to hydrogen R&D looks rather paltry. All eyes are on Iceland as they attempt to become the first nation to convert to a hydrogen-based economy. They have made some promising steps and one can hope success in that outpost can lead to further expansion.
Back to Rifkin's book. Only the last two of the nine chapters talk about hydrogen and the future structure for the development and distribution of its energy. By arguing the negative case for so long, he runs the risk of being subverted by those who have a vested interest in stasis. He should have concentrated on the new technology and resisted pushing his own political/economic causes. I tend to agree with many of his views, but I don't think they strengthen his argument with a wider audience. His scientific arguments, especially as they pertain to the bell curve idea of deriving oil are his strongest but they become muddied with the plethora of his other assertions. Rifkin needed to clearly understand, in his own mind, what he wanted to do with this book and what the best arguments were. He let himself down.
Rating:
Summary: Well Written and Horrifying
Review: Rifkin's Hydrogen Economy, although short on scientific evidence to back up some of his claims, paints a truly terrifying portriat of the next thirty years; one that will inevitably come true if we do not embrace new energy sources. Buy this book for the first 125 pages, and check out "tomorrow's energy" for a great look at the emerging HEW. Rifkin's thesis on the Rise and Fall of civilizations and its relation to energy needs is very relevant to todays efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan and leaves one with an entirely different outlook on aspects of human civilization that seem to be commonplace and immutable. A must-read.
Rating:
Summary: Don't believe the Title
Review: Seldom has so much misleading information been contained in a single volume. Equally important, the author doesn't begin to address the hydrogen economy until the last third of the book. The first 175 pges consists of what can graciuosly be desribed as pseudo science, pseudo engineering, pseudo religeon and pseudo history. His attempt to use thermodynamics to describe history and human progress is ludicrous. As an engineer I can attest that his use of thermodynamics is clumsy at best. Incredibly, the last 37 pages are a lecture on communizing electricty and "establishing human settlements by bio-regions, eco-regions and geo-regions" in effect doing away with Nation States.
Permeating the book is a Malthusean spectre:We are on the cusp of doom.
When he finally deals with the hydrogen economy his thesis can be sumarized in a few words. Fuel cells will be in every home and building and automobile and the elcetric grid will look like the World Wide Web with distributed generation everywhere. It should be noted that the idea of a hydrogen economy is not new and that better, less politicized sources of valid information can be found elsewhere (including information about the obstacles that must be overcome, something the author does not seriously address). Don't be misled by the title, this book has little to offer about the hydrogen economy. Only 39 pages are devoted to the hydrogen economy and this is a superficial treatment of an important subject.
Rating:
Summary: Are two good chapters enough?
Review: The Hydrogen Economy is full of problems, but not the ones that the author thought he was writing about. Jeremy Rifkin should have written a long magazine article or a pamphlet. Instead he has written two important relevant chapters about the Hydrogen Economy and filled the rest of the book with soft and fuzzy pseudo science and history. He incorrectly states that slaves built the Egyptian pyramids… Well, perhaps in the movies but, no self-respecting Egyptologist has ever found any evidence to support that claim. But then, who cares? This book is supposed to be about “when there is no more oil…†What is pyramid building doing in a book about the Hydrogen Economy??? Okay, if you find that to be picky then just imagine applying the second law of thermodynamics to the rise and fall of civilizations. Yes, Rifkin has written an entire chapter on this premise. In just 26 pages he has covered the rise and fall of all civilizations that have existed on our planet. This is the basic problem with the book. Rifken just does not have enough material to expand his basic and appealing premise into a book that lists for ...in hardcover. And, so he drifts. That being said, there are two chapters that are worth reading. Chapter 2, Sliding Down Hubbert’s Bell Curve, is a well written synopsis of the work of M. King Hubbert, a geophysicist who worked for Shell Oil Company. In a 1956 published paper that dealt with predicting the peak and subsequent decline in oil production, Hubbert postulated that oil production starts at 0, then rises continuously until about half of the recoverable oil is produced. At this point oil production has peaked, and decline is inevitable. When plotted, this process looks like a normal bell curve. Initially, Hubbert’s paper and its thesis were not taken seriously. Now there is so much supporting data that is it impossible not to be startled by the simple elegance of Hubbert’s Bell Curve. In this chapter with 96 footnotes referencing academics, and energy experts, Rifkin presents Hubbert’s Bell Curve and its current implications. Here you have Rifkin at his best. Unfortunately, you have to plough through over 100 pages of rising and falling civilizations, the Islamic wildcard, CO2 problems, and global warming before getting to Chapter 8, the “Dawn of the Hydrogen Economy.†Even here, Rifkin uses filler. He opens the chapter with four paragraphs about how Jules Verne got it right in The Mysterious Island. Please! I suggest that if you want to read about energy alternatives, find another book. This is such an important topic, and this is such an unimportant book.
Rating:
Summary: Catch 22
Review: The premise of this book is ridiculous. How can hydrogen be the answer to all our energy problems when hydrogen is not a source of energy - it is a form of stored energy because no free state hydrogen exists on earth. It takes more energy to get hydrogen out of water or petroleum products than can be gained from hydrogen produced. There is no technology I am aware of that can change this. He talks about using renewable forms of energy to produce hydrogen, but if that were possible why not just use it to generate electricity for the existing power grid? This reminds me of the investment book that starts out by saying "First you start with a million dollars...". This is not much different than saying "Just use hydrogen". The problem is getting that first million dollars and in the same way the problem is finding a source of economical hydrogen which doesn't take more power to produce than it returns when burned or used in a fuel cell. He offers no viable solutions for this. The easy part is building the fuel cell.
| 
