# Sustainable Energy without the Hot Air by David MacKay

19 Hacker News commenters recommended Sustainable Energy without the Hot Air by David MacKay and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People praise its clear, rigorous energy analysis that puts every option in the same units, though critics say its economics and forecasts are dated and it commits the primary energy fallacy.

## Why people recommend it

- Compares all energy options in same units (3 comments): "MacKay's lasting contribution isn't any specific forecast - it's the discipline of expressing everything in the same units" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49893088)) "Lot of space spent discussing efficiency and losses and comparing apples to apples." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49893541)) "He did get it exactly right. 1500 pages of detailed analysis" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49905257))
- Influential, highly regarded author and book (3 comments): "It's in the same vein as the late, great David MacKay's Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47253813)) "Not bad at all for an early amazingly influential AI researcher" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49896352)) "when MacKay wrote his excellent book" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49894385))
- Detailed, page-turning analysis (2 comments): "I have not read a hard-core piece of analysis in any field before or since that I thought was a page-turner the way this was." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49894621)) "He did get it exactly right. 1500 pages of detailed analysis" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49905257))
- Right about heat pumps (2 comments): "I disagree with some of his takes but he was spot on regarding heat pumps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49893836)) "heat pumps were definitely understood by the author" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49893067))

## What people warn about

- Commits the primary energy fallacy (3 comments): "some of its analysis and forecasts are fundamentally flawed since it falls for the primary energy fallacy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49892868)) "The significant problem with that book is that it commits the primary energy fallacy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46913219)) "not including the conversion in the primary comparison is particularly egregious" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49893179))
- Dated economics and forecasts (3 comments): "carefully scoped to the economics of 02008 (when solar modules cost 33× as much as they do now)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49894761)) "Love the book, but as others have noted, it is very much dated." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49893288)) "everything that’s happened since it was published makes the projections here useless" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49900712))
- Relies on biofuel and fuel-economy assumptions (2 comments): "if you drilled down, this conclusion was due to use of biofuels" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46907890)) "It also assumes 12 km/litre - which in UK terms is 33 mpg." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49907915))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cuckoo-s-egg.md): 40 recommend
- [Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amusing-ourselves-to-death.md): 36 recommend
- [The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt](https://hackerapproved.com/p/anxious-generation.md): 24 recommend
- [Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bullshit-jobs.md): 20 recommend
- [Enshittification by Cory Doctorow](https://hackerapproved.com/p/enshittification.md): 19 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0954452933?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780954452933) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Sustainable Energy without the Hot Air by David MacKay", https://hackerapproved.com/p/sustainable-energy-without-the-hot-air/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).