David Toke has a powerful story to tell in Energy Revolutions: Profiteering versus Democracy, his recently released book encapsulating a lifetime in the renewable energy trenches.
Toke doesn’t mince words. His title alone says it all. What’s needed is not a transition from fossil fuels, as COP 28 meekly requested, but a revolution in how we procure, distribute, and use energy. But Toke boldly goes further, calling for a revolution in who gets to develop and own our renewable future. In doing so, he takes on the axis of evil, Reagan-Thatcherism, and their destructive cult of neoliberalism that has shackled renewable energy for decades to the benefit of fossil fuel barons and their minions.
Like Craig Morris and Arne Jungjohann before him in Energy Democracy, Toke calls for increasing democracy in energy policy. And like them he calls for liberating a new generation of Jeffersonian democrats who demand to own and operate their own wind turbines and solar panels.
Most importantly, Toke takes on the sacred cows of neoliberlism by stating that the “market” has abysmally failed to reign in global warming emissions and he explains why the “markets” are unlikely to do so. He argues that there is a role for the state in setting policy and managing “markets” to get the results that society needs. This is anathema to the Tories currently ruling Britain in the shadow of Margaret Thatcher.
Toke’s book focuses on North America, Great Britain, and Europe, especially Germany, Denmark, and nuclear France. His emphasis is how the energy revolution is being thwarted by the profiteering dominance of the energy companies. Of course, one of Toke’s sobering conclusions is that none of the countries are meeting their emission reduction targets, even the trail blazers in Europe.
He takes on Britain’s sad tale up front in Chapter 2. And as a Brit, Toke knows of which he speaks, having watched one of the early leaders in wind energy stumble and fall by the wayside. Now Britain imports its wind turbines from Denmark and Germany.
Toke comes down squarely on the call for long-term, fixed-price contracts for renewables as the single most cost-effective policy for the rapid growth of renewables. In this, Toke joins a long list of energy analysts both in North America and Europe. Toke was a witness as well as a proponent to the explosive growth of solar PV in Britain—yes, in rain-soaked, cloudy Britain—due to a well-designed program of feed-in tariffs. He could also see how the same policies across the Channel built a renewable energy powerhouse in Germany, it too a rainy, cloudy locale. Solar proved it worked in Germany and again proved it worked in Britain. Indeed, it may have worked too well, it and the feed-in tariffs that made them possible were the top of the target list when the Tories took power a decade ago, destroying Britain’s nascent solar industry and the jobs it created along with it.
Tokes chapter on the EU shows what happens when you’re energy supply depends on a fickle fossil fuel you don’t control. Unwisely, Europe grew dependent on Russian gas after the once abundant fields in Britain and the Netherlands began their long terminal decline. When Russia invaded Ukraine, “liberalized” natural gas prices skyrocketed to five times their pre-invasion levels, impoverishing many consumers and devastating industries continent wide.
Nuclear won’t save Europe either, argues Toke. It may not even save France. During the energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, several of the “reliable” French reactors were down for repairs. France had to import electricity from Germany, causing electricity prices to spike across the continent. Despite the hype from the French nuclear industry, generation has continued to decline year on year. Meanwhile, across the frontier, the steady growth of German renewables will soon surpass French nuclear generation. Yet the French continue to dawdle, hoping for a miracle. Meanwhile, French renewables languish.
Toke calls for the rapid development of the grid connections that make distributed renewables possible. Without those grid connections, the mass of projects that fixed-price contracts can stimulate will never get built. And centralized systems like those in Britain and France remain a hostile environment for distributed renewables.
In 2022, 29% of Britain’s electricity was generated by renewables with wind supplying 25% and solar 4%. It could have been so much more with consistent public policy that wasn’t strangled by neoliberal ideology.
Denmark shows what can be accomplished, writes Toke. Denmark generated 60% of its electricity from renewables. While most of that generation was from wind, an important part was from biomass, reminding us that renewables are not just wind and solar.
Ironically, while Denmark is a windy country, Britain has among the best wind resources in Europe. Yet wind energy on land, the most cost effective form of wind energy, has been essentially banned by the current government for the past decade.
Like Professor Mark Jacobson in California, Toke calls for Britain and the West in general to get 100 percent or its energy from renewables. What once was thought to be only a dream has now become a reality that requires supportive government policy and hard work.
In conclusion, Toke offers prescriptions for how people can “take back control” from the energy oligarchs holding us back. Encouragingly, he writes, this movement is gaining momentum on both sides of the Atlantic.
David Toke, Energy Revolutions: Profiteering versus Democracy (London: Pluto Press, 2024), https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745349268/energy-revolutions/, ISBN: 9780745349251, $23.95 paper; ISBN: 9780745349268 $21.95 e-book; 208 pages, Printed in the United Kingdom and the USA.
Contents
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Preface
Pathways to Energy Revolutions
1. How Neoliberalism Wrecked UK Energy… and How to Turn Things Around
3. USA and Canada: How Pro-Corporate Policies Have Slowed the Energy Revolution – But How Far Can Biden’s Laws Change This?
4. The EU: Neoliberalism Has Failed – So What Could Be Next?
5. Getting Green Energy
Conclusion
