Amory Bloch Lovins was born on November 13, 1947. He is an American writer, physicist, and former chairman and chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. For over 40 years, he has written about energy policy and related topics. He worked with the US National Petroleum Council, a group that influences policies in the oil industry, from 2011 to 2018.

Lovins has supported energy efficiency, the use of renewable energy, and producing energy close to where it is needed. He promoted the idea of a "negawatt revolution," which means that people who use electricity want services powered by energy, not just electricity itself. In the 1990s, he helped design an extremely efficient car called the Hypercar through the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has given expert advice and written 31 books, including Reinventing Fire, Winning the Oil Endgame, Small is Profitable, Brittle Power, and Natural Capitalism.

Early life and education

Lovins was born in Washington, DC. His father, Gerald H. Lovins, worked as an engineer, and his mother, Miriam Lovins, worked in social services. Lovins is the brother of Julie Beth Lovins, a computational linguist who created the first stemming algorithm for word matching.

In 1964, Lovins entered Harvard College as a National Merit Scholar. After two years, he moved to Oxford. In 1969, he became a junior research fellow at Merton College, Oxford, which gave him a temporary Oxford master of arts status. He left Oxford in 1971 without earning a degree because the university did not allow him to study for a doctorate in energy. Lovins moved to London to work on energy-related projects and returned to the United States in 1981. He settled in western Colorado in 1982.

Lovins’ four grandparents moved to the United States from small villages near Kyiv and Odesa in Ukraine around the early 1900s. Most of his other family members are believed to have been killed by German Nazis in the 1941 Tarashcha massacre.

Work

From 1965 to 1981, Lovins led mountain climbing trips and took photographs of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. He shared these photos in a book called At Home in the Wild: New England's White Mountains. In 1971, he wrote a book about Wales’ Snowdonia National Park, which was in danger of losing its natural beauty. The book, Eryri, the Mountains of Longing, was created by David Brower, who was the leader of Friends of the Earth. Lovins worked for Friends of the Earth as their representative in Britain for about 10 years.

In the early 1970s, Lovins became interested in planning how to use resources, especially energy. The energy crisis of 1973 helped people pay attention to his work. An essay he wrote for the United Nations became his first book about energy, World Energy Strategies (1973). His next book, Non-Nuclear Futures: The Case for an Ethical Energy Strategy (1975), was written with John H. Price.

By 1978, Lovins had written six books and worked with many groups. In 1982, he and his wife, Hunter Lovins, started the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) in Snowmass, Colorado. With help from other experts, the Lovinses worked to use resources wisely and create ways to protect the environment for the future.

Lovins has worked with many large companies, real estate developers, and energy providers. He also helped government groups, including the OECD, the United Nations, and 13 U.S. states. He served on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Research Advisory Board in 1980 and 1981. He also worked on military energy projects for the Defense Science Board from 1999 to 2001 and from 2006 to 2008. Recently, he held a visiting professorship at Stanford University’s school of engineering.

Since 1982, RMI has grown into an organization that both studies and solves problems related to energy and the environment. It now has more than 600 employees and an annual budget of over $120 million. RMI has also created five companies that operate for profit.

Ideas

In 1976, Amory Lovins wrote an article for Foreign Affairs titled "Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?" Lovins explained that the United States faced an important choice. One path, supported by U.S. policy, focused on using more fossil fuels and nuclear power, which could harm the environment. The other path, called "the soft path," promoted renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, along with using energy more efficiently. In October 1977, The Atlantic magazine published a cover story about Lovins' ideas. Residential solar energy technologies are examples of soft energy technologies. Rapid use of these technologies is important for a soft energy strategy.

Lovins describes the "hard energy path" as using energy inefficiently and relying on non-renewable sources like fossil fuels. He believes the impacts of the soft path are more "gentle, pleasant, and manageable" than those of the hard path. These impacts affect individuals, households, and society at national and international levels.

A documentary film called Lovins on the Soft Path was created by Amory and Hunter Lovins. It won awards such as "Best Science and Technology Film" at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1983 and "Best Energy Film" at the International Environmental Film Festival in 1982.

Lovins wrote that nuclear power plants are not always reliable. In the United States, 132 nuclear plants were built, but 21% were closed permanently due to reliability or cost issues, and 27% experienced complete failures lasting a year or more. The remaining plants produce about 90% of their full potential but must shut down for about one month every 18 months for refueling and maintenance. To manage this, utilities keep extra power capacity ready for use.

Lovins also notes that nuclear plants have a safety disadvantage. If there is a power failure, they must shut down immediately and cannot restart quickly. For example, during the Northeast Blackout of 2003, nine U.S. nuclear units shut down temporarily. After restarting, their power output was less than 3% of normal for three days and dropped below 50% after 12 days.

In a 2011 article, Lovins stated that nuclear power is the only energy source where accidents or intentional harm can cause widespread deaths, help make nuclear weapons, and create dangerous waste. He also said nuclear plants are too slow and expensive to build, which slows efforts to protect the climate. Regarding the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents, Lovins wrote that having 54 reactors in an area with 127 million people is unwise.

In 2014, Lovins commented on nuclear power in the United Kingdom.

A "negawatt" is a unit of power saved, the opposite of a watt. Lovins promoted a "negawatt revolution," explaining that people want energy services like hot showers or lit rooms, which can be achieved more cheaply by using electricity efficiently.

In 1994, Lovins designed a vehicle called the Hypercar. It would use lightweight materials, an aerodynamic shape, and hybrid technology to improve fuel efficiency by three to five times compared to today's cars, while maintaining performance, safety, and affordability.

In 1999, the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) started a company called Hypercar Inc. to develop the Hypercar. In 2004, the company changed its name to Fiberforge to focus on reducing costs for advanced materials.

Lovins said commercial use of the Hypercar began in 2014, with the production of the all-carbon electric BMW i3 and the 313 miles per gallon Volkswagen XL1.

Lovins does not see his energy ideas as green or left-wing. He supports private businesses and free markets. He notes that Rupert Murdoch made News Corporation carbon-neutral, saving millions of dollars. However, he believes large institutions are becoming less effective, and he supports the growth of "citizen organizations" worldwide.

Criticism

The Breakthrough Institute has pointed out problems with some ideas proposed by Amory Lovins. A major disagreement involves the assumption by Lovins that improving energy efficiency leads to a direct decrease in total energy use. However, the Jevons Paradox explains that when energy becomes more efficient and cheaper, people may use more of it, which is called the "rebound effect." This idea is not given enough attention in Lovins' work.

Other ideas from Lovins have also been questioned. For example, in his book Reinventing Fire, Lovins suggests that 50% of the electricity in the United States could come from wind power by 2050. Other experts believe this is unlikely, as they think wind power might only provide about 30% of electricity. Similar concerns are raised about solar power, where estimates of 30% are considered too high. Additionally, no detailed analysis is provided in Lovins' work about the large amounts of electricity storage needed to supply power when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing.

Awards

Amory Lovins was chosen as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1984, of the World Academy of Art and Science in 1988, and of the World Business Academy in 2001. He has received the Right Livelihood Award, the Blue Planet Prize, the Volvo Environment Prize, the 4th Annual Heinz Award in the Environment in 1998, and the National Design (Design Mind), Jean Meyer, and Lindbergh Awards.

Lovins is also the recipient of the Time Hero for the Planet awards, the Benjamin Franklin and Happold Medals, the Harold and Margaret Sprout Award, and the Shingo, Nissan, Mitchell, and Onassis Prizes. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1993 and is an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, and an Honorary Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council. He is on the Advisory Board of the Holcim Foundation.

In 2009, Time magazine named Lovins as one of the world's 100 most influential people.

On March 17, 2016, Lovins received the Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse (Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit) from the Federal Republic of Germany for helping to develop Germany's Energiewende, most notably with his concept of "soft energy" and how that promotes peace and prosperity.

Lovins was a senior Ashoka Fellow in 2009.

Personal life

In 1979, Amory Lovins married L. Hunter Sheldon, a lawyer, forester, and social scientist. They separated in 1989 and divorced in 1999. In 2007, he married Judy Hill, a fine-art landscape photographer.

Books

This is a list of books written by Amory B. Lovins or with others:

• World Energy Strategies: Facts, Issues, and Options – Published in London by Friends of the Earth Ltd. on behalf of Earth Resources Research Ltd. in 1975. ISBN 978-0-88410-601-2.
• The Energy Controversy: Soft Path Questions and Answers – Published in 1979. ISBN 978-0-913890-22-6.
• Non-Nuclear Futures: The Case for an Ethical Energy Strategy – Co-written with John H. Price and published in San Francisco in 1980. ISBN 978-0-06-090777-8.
• Least-Cost Energy: Solving the CO2 Problem – Published by Brick House Pub. Co. in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1982. ISBN 978-0-931790-36-2.
• Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security – Co-written with L Hunter Lovins and published by Brick House in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1982. Reprinted in 2001. ISBN 0-931790-28-X.
• The First Nuclear World War – Co-written with Patrick O'Heffernan and L Hunter Lovins and published by Morrow in New York in 1983. ISBN 978-0-09-155830-7.
• Reinventing Electric Utilities: Competition, Citizen Action, and Clean Power – Published in 1996. ISBN 978-1-55963-455-7.
• Factor Four: Doubling Wealth – Halving Resource Use: A Report to the Club of Rome – Published in 1997. ISBN 978-1-85383-407-3.
• Natural Capitalism – Published in 2000. ISBN 1-85383-763-6.
• Small Is Profitable – Published in 2003. ISBN 1-881071-07-3.
• The Natural Advantage Of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation And Governance in the 21st Century – Published in 2004. ISBN 1-84407-121-9.
• Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run: A Call to Save the Earth – Published in 2007. ISBN 978-1-57805-138-0.

• Faktor vier. Doppelter Wohlstand – halbierter Verbrauch – Published in 1997. ISBN 978-3-426-77286-7.
• Facteur 4: Rapport au Club de Rome – Published in 1997. ISBN 978-2-904082-67-2.
• Öko-Kapitalismus: Die industrielle Revolution des 21. Jahrhunderts – Published in 2002. ISBN 978-1-4000-3941-8.