week2-history-of-energy-use-1

Type: lecturenote

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Requirements:

• Active participation
• Writing 4 literature reviews of one to two pages to be handed in at the beginning of class
• Term paper or oral exam depending on your program (term paper due 31.03.2026; and oral exam on 11., 12., 13.02.2026)

Global Energy Politics

Reading Notes:

Lecture Notes:

Vaclav Smith — Energy and Civilization: A History - A new “grand narrative”. - How we organize society and civilization was very much interwoven with how we use the energy. - Energy is “the universal currency” - When energy changes, the politics also changes - Think about the switch from biofuels to fossil fuels (biofuels are what people used until fossil, like wood, etc. It is different than “modern biomass”) - Or the great transformation of the 19th century (p. 268) - It’s not just about the coal, it is about the system that we use coal. Parts of this system was everywhere. - Agriculture is not just about feeding people, it is also effected by modern-biofuel production.

The Great Transition and Coal

• History of coal use over almost 1000 years…
  • but only in 17th century in England, 19th in France and ent of 19th century in Russia did coal overtake wood
• (Mechanical) innovations (charcoal, coke, steam engine…)
  • History of feedback loops (mining, transport…)
• In UK coal dominant driver for 400 years until the 1950s… and still is in China, India, South Africa…
• The story:
  • For many centuries, coal was “poor men’s” cooking fuel. Rich people preferred charcoal or wood. Because it was toxic. But mechanical innovations like steam engine, this has changed.
  • Coal and steam engine was first used in mining, to get more coal. In mining, when you dig the ground, you start getting floods, so you have to pump it out if you want to continue digging.
    • Coal got agency through steam-engine (Sociological Perspective — Actor-Network Oriented?)
• China:
  • China is the number 1 country when it comes to renewables. The half of the world’s renewable energy in total is produced in China.
  • China is also the number 1 country when it comes to coal usage.
    • Why so dependent on coal still — renewable energy is cheaper?
      • Because of the abundance of coal. You can get coal for cheap from internal mining and surrounding countries. And the USA doesn’t have much power over coal trade paths like petrol. So it is pretty political.

The Story of Oil

• Density of energy of oil unmatched
• Use of oil already more than 2000 years, but large scale extraction at the end of the 19th century (except Russia and Azerbaijan)
• Oil use overtook use of coal only in the 1950s!
• Role of infrastructure (tankers, refineries…)
• Railroads, cars, planes and internal combustion engine
  • Diesel’s dream (page 255)
    • Why did it not succeed?
• The Story
  • It was first used in Azerbaijan. 1850-60’s.
  • The transition from coal to oil also needed a technological innovation.
• Diesel’s Dream:
  • Seeing it failed also gives us an opportunity to reflect on the future of renewable energy. Some are saying that it is not just making energy industry “environmental friendly”, but also more democratic. But this might be the same story of Diesel’s failed dream. Because politics and money is always very much involved with the story of energy. So oil brought more inequalities and concentration of wealth instead of democratization and equality.

Electricity

• Commercialization of energy → light (Edison, light bulbs and the modern city, also Darmstadt)
• Energy as agency (Jules Verne, page 257)
• Transmission of electricity (high voltage transmission) and the role of transformers
• Efficiency gains through steam turbogenerators (page 282)