Sustainable Energy without the Hot Air
Sustainable Energy without the Hot Air by David MacKayby David J.C. MacKay
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 5 of 152 nonfiction books by recommenders
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.
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.
28 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- criticize it
- 9
- approval share
- 68%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.1 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Compares all energy options in same units
“MacKay's lasting contribution isn't any specific forecast - it's the discipline of expressing everything in the same units”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Sustainable energy without the hot air (2008)” “Lot of space spent discussing efficiency and losses and comparing apples to apples.”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Sustainable energy without the hot air (2008)” “He did get it exactly right. 1500 pages of detailed analysis”
Comment from 30 Sep 2026 in “Sustainable energy without the hot air (2008)” Influential, highly regarded author and book
“It's in the same vein as the late, great David MacKay's Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Does that use a lot of energy?” “Not bad at all for an early amazingly influential AI researcher”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Sustainable energy without the hot air (2008)” “when MacKay wrote his excellent book”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Sustainable energy without the hot air (2008)” Detailed, page-turning analysis
“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.”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Sustainable energy without the hot air (2008)” “He did get it exactly right. 1500 pages of detailed analysis”
Comment from 30 Sep 2026 in “Sustainable energy without the hot air (2008)” Right about heat pumps
“I disagree with some of his takes but he was spot on regarding heat pumps”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Sustainable energy without the hot air (2008)” “heat pumps were definitely understood by the author”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Sustainable energy without the hot air (2008)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Commits the primary energy fallacy
“some of its analysis and forecasts are fundamentally flawed since it falls for the primary energy fallacy”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Sustainable energy without the hot air (2008)” “The significant problem with that book is that it commits the primary energy fallacy.”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “Cubans rendered powerless as outages persist and tensions with US escalate” “not including the conversion in the primary comparison is particularly egregious”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Sustainable energy without the hot air (2008)” Dated economics and forecasts
“carefully scoped to the economics of 02008 (when solar modules cost 33× as much as they do now)”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Sustainable energy without the hot air (2008)” “Love the book, but as others have noted, it is very much dated.”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Sustainable energy without the hot air (2008)” “everything that’s happened since it was published makes the projections here useless”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Sustainable energy without the hot air (2008)” Relies on biofuel and fuel-economy assumptions
“if you drilled down, this conclusion was due to use of biofuels”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “Cubans rendered powerless as outages persist and tensions with US escalate” “It also assumes 12 km/litre - which in UK terms is 33 mpg.”
Comment from 30 Sep 2026 in “Sustainable energy without the hot air (2008)”
Other nonfiction books people recommend
The four most recommended other nonfiction books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Cuckoo's Eggby Clifford Stoll | 40 | 0 | 100% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Amusing Ourselves to Deathby Neil Postman | 36 | 0 | 100% | 9 | 1 yr3 owners | Approved |
| The Anxious Generationby Jonathan Haidt | 24 | 12 | 67% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Bullshit Jobsby David Graeber | 20 | 12 | 63% | 8 | — | — |
| Sustainable Energy without the Hot Airby David J.C. MacKayThis page | 19 | 9 | 68% | 4 | — | Approved |
What people said
31 of the 34 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It also assumes 12 km/litre - which in UK terms is 33 mpg.”
“He did get it exactly right. 1500 pages of detailed analysis”
“I do not think this book is accurate (even for its time)”
“everything that’s happened since it was published makes the projections here useless”
“he was right on some technologies not making much sense like electric planes”
“the geography in the book, the UK, has spectacularly bad resources for solar”
“seems a very good entry point”
“They can present tremendously one-sided information in the first few chapters, giving the spin that they want”
“Not bad at all for an early amazingly influential AI researcher”
“The colors are gross, it took me ten minutes just to figure out what I was looking at”
“So I think that even versions from 02008 got this right”
“the author under discussion actually gets this right in some chapters with regard to the superior efficiency of EVs”
“carefully scoped to the economics of 02008 (when solar modules cost 33× as much as they do now)”
“he presents a more complete picture of the issues than you are presenting”
“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.”
“when MacKay wrote his excellent book”
“it pulls focus away from the thing we want (the end result)”
“I disagree with some of his takes but he was spot on regarding heat pumps”
“It means the arguments are even MORE in favor of what is stated in the book.”
“the main error there was that he failed to foresee offshore wind dropping in price so much”
“Lot of space spent discussing efficiency and losses and comparing apples to apples.”
“he's comparing apples to oranges simply because they use the same units”
“Love the book, but as others have noted, it is very much dated.”
“not including the conversion in the primary comparison is particularly egregious”
“MacKay's lasting contribution isn't any specific forecast - it's the discipline of expressing everything in the same units”
“heat pumps were definitely understood by the author”
“some of its analysis and forecasts are fundamentally flawed since it falls for the primary energy fallacy”
“It's in the same vein as the late, great David MacKay's Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air”
“The significant problem with that book is that it commits the primary energy fallacy.”
“if you drilled down, this conclusion was due to use of biofuels”
“Why not is explained in David McKay's book Sustainable Energy - without the hot air”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.