Heat, Power and Light: Revolutions in Energy Services

What happens when a radically-new fuel or technology transforms the energy system? How does the energy system evolve at different stages of economic development? What are the implications for people’s lives and their environment? Building on an award-winning article, in this exciting book Roger Fouquet investigates the impacts of technological innovations and economic development over the last seven hundred years on our ability to provide heat, power, transport and light.

Using a unique data set, collected over a decade, the analysis identifies the forces driving revolutions in energy services. It highlights the tendency of markets to produce ever-cheaper energy services, which in turn incite greater energy consumption. It also examines how these revolutions affect people’s well-being and the environment. The framework, analysis and insights in this book offer an original perspective on future energy markets, transitions to low-carbon economies and strategies for addressing climate change.

Heat, Power and Light is an invaluable and unique contribution to this profoundly important topic. As such it will appeal to a wide audience of energy economists, climate change analysts, policymakers, economic and technology historians and economists more broadly.