This summer saw a publishing first. Walt Patterson, a septugenerarian Canadian former nuclear physicist domiciled in Britain for nearly four decades, finally published his magnum opus, a distillation of some 35 years of thinking and writing  about electricity  and energy policy.

It has appeared as “Keeping the lights on” [Earthscan] – but it sub head conveys the more important message: “towards sustainable electricity.”

We all owe a great debt to Patterson’s persistence (and no doubt future generations too), often against the establishment grain, in developing his vision. London think tank Chatham House’s energy, environment and development programme provided a final base, which had begun at Friends of the Earth in the1970s.

Patterson’s book contains virtually no numbers, despite his physics background, as he grapples with intransigent technical, political and bureaucratic systems. This is one of the book’s strengths: it is amazing he comes out with an optimism undiminished.

Here is a purple passage worth repeating: “Selling energy services rather than units of fuel or electricity also illustrates a central issue we must address. What we call ‘energy policy’ is still really ‘fuel and power policy’, preoccupied with batch transactions in commercial carriers that we treat as commodities and price by the unit.”

Thus, real energy policy levers should include asset accountancy, asset taxation and all related measures affecting investment in infrastructure of every kind, particularly energy-service infrastructure. He’s right.

Patterson’s concluding chapter paints a picture of the future: high-performing buildings, with high-reliability and low impact. His final chapter sub-head is “invisible sustainable”: he ends: “if we get this right, if we overcome low expectations and a legacy mindset, our grandchildren may discover that sustainable electricity is invisible.”

Caveat emptor

“The overwhelming message we are getting from our members is that the Merton rule has its merits but if you want to save carbon, there are better ways to do it than [insisting on onsite renewable energy],”
John Alker, UKGBC, The Guardian 29 August

“I have never known legislation so badly introduced. Homeowners clearly have no faith in the [home information]packs or the policy, which have only brought more bureaucracy and mass uncertainty to an already paralysed market. Before they are heaped on the rest of homeowners, we need to see some evidence-based justification that this policy benefits consumers. At the moment, it doesn’t exist.” Jeremy Leaf, housing spokesman, RICS, 
Sunday Telegraph, 9 Sept.

“Noddy was a very nice man, but very small. The problem for example illustrated by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and this is where it really comes up against the way people live and the direct impact it has on us, 15% of one or two bedroom new properties have master bedrooms that are unfit for two people. That is actually quite shocking,” Sunand Prasad, President, Royal Institute of British Architects, 
BBC Radio 4 ‘You and Yours’, 5 Sept.