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The Energy Trap
Why the renewable energy transition can’t work – and what can
Brief Description
One of humanity's greatest modern threats involves an area of life we thought we had mastered: energy. For the last century, our energy system has delivered rising prosperity, increased lifespans, and largely eliminated famine. Now it is being dismantled - with confidence, with public money, and...
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Description
One of humanity's greatest modern threats involves an area of life we thought we had mastered: energy. For the last century, our energy system has delivered rising prosperity, increased lifespans, and largely eliminated famine. Now it is being dismantled - with confidence, with public money, and with almost no scrutiny.
In this short, sharp book, Richard Lyon - electrical engineer, petroleum engineer, and energy economist - strips the energy debate back to the physics. What he finds is alarming: fossil fuels are running out, the proposed replacements can't do the job, and the people in charge don't understand the science well enough to realise, much less pursue, solutions.
The consequences could be severe, but they are not yet inevitable. In a series of lucid chapters, The Energy Trap sets out the problem and proposes a way forward - provided we are willing to stop wasting our remaining resources on energy systems that can't work and get on with building one that can.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781800757356
Publisher: Swift Press
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 24 September 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Forum
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 0g
Pages: 144
About the Author
Richard Lyon is an electrical engineer, petroleum engineer and energy economist. He began his career as a pilot in the Royal Air Force before spending over twenty-five years in the oil and gas industry, holding senior operational and commercial roles in the UK, Norway, Azerbaijan, Congo and Cameroon. He holds a BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, an MEng in Petroleum Engineering, and an MSc in Energy Economics. His master's research focused on quantifying the degree of optimism in institutional estimates of remaining oil reserves.
The Energy Trap grew from a conviction, formed over three decades of producing, managing and studying energy, that the gap between energy policy and physical reality has become dangerous - and that the public are perfectly able to acquire and apply the knowledge needed to challenge the policies being made in their name.
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