Amory Bloch Lovins was born on November 13, 1947. He is an American writer, physicist, and former leader and top scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. For more than 40 years, he has written about energy policy and related topics. He also worked with the US National Petroleum Council, an organization that represents the oil industry, from 2011 to 2018.

Lovins has supported using energy more efficiently, using renewable energy sources, and creating energy close to where it is needed. He believes people want energy services, not just electricity. In the 1990s, he helped design an extremely efficient car called the Hypercar through the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has given expert opinions 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, was an engineer, and his mother, Miriam Lovins, worked as a social services administrator. Lovins has a sister named Julie Beth Lovins, who is a computational linguist and created the first stemming algorithm for matching words.

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

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

Work

From 1965 to 1981, Lovins led mountain climbing trips and took photos 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 about the Snowdonia National Park in Wales, which was in danger of losing its natural beauty. This book, Eryri, the Mountains of Longing, was requested by David Brower, who was president of Friends of the Earth at the time. Lovins worked for Friends of the Earth as their representative in Britain for about 10 years.

In the early 1970s, Lovins became interested in how resources, especially energy, are used. The 1973 energy crisis made people pay more 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 as a consultant for many organizations. In 1982, he and his wife, Hunter Lovins, started the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) in Snowmass, Colorado. With help from colleagues, the Lovinses promoted ways to use resources efficiently and develop in ways that protect the environment.

Lovins has worked with many large companies, real estate developers, and energy providers. He also worked with government groups, including the OECD, 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. He most recently held a visiting professor position at Stanford University’s engineering school.

Since 1982, RMI has grown into a large organization with over 600 employees and an annual budget of more than $120 million. RMI has also created five companies that operate for profit.

Ideas

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

Lovins described the "hard energy path" as using energy inefficiently and relying on non-renewable sources like fossil fuels. He believed the soft path had fewer negative effects on people and society. These effects include impacts at the individual and household levels, as well as on national and global societies.

A documentary film titled Lovins on the Soft Path was created by Amory and Hunter Lovins. It won several awards, including "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, like solar and wind energy, can sometimes stop working unexpectedly for long periods. In the United States, 132 nuclear plants were built, but 21% were closed permanently due to reliability or cost issues. Another 27% shut down completely for a year or more at least once. The remaining plants produce about 90% of their full potential but must shut down for about one month every 18 months for maintenance. To handle these issues, power companies keep extra energy ready for use.

Lovins also noted that nuclear plants face a challenge: they must stop immediately during a power failure, but they cannot restart quickly. For example, during the 2003 Northeast Blackout, nine U.S. nuclear plants shut down temporarily. After restarting, their energy output was less than 3% of normal for three days and dropped by more than 50% after 12 days.

In a 2011 article, Lovins wrote that nuclear power has risks, including the possibility of harm to people far from the plant, the risk of nuclear weapons, and the danger of radioactive waste. He also said that nuclear power is too slow and expensive to help solve climate change. He criticized the location of nuclear plants in Japan, where 54 reactors are in an area with a high risk of earthquakes and tsunamis.

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

A "negawatt" is a unit of energy saved, the opposite of a watt. Lovins promoted a "negawatt revolution," explaining that people want energy services like hot water or lighting, 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 regular cars.

In 1999, a company called Hypercar Inc. was started to develop this idea. In 2004, the company changed its name to Fiberforge to focus on reducing costs for advanced materials.

Lovins said the Hypercar concept began being used in 2014 with the production of the BMW i3 electric car and the Volkswagen XL1, which gets 313 miles per gallon.

Lovins does not see his energy ideas as politically left-wing or environmentalist. He supports private businesses and free-market solutions. He noted 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-led organizations worldwide.

Criticism

The Breakthrough Institute has pointed out problems with some ideas proposed by Amory Lovins. A major issue is the assumption made by Lovins that improving energy efficiency leads to a direct decrease in total energy use. However, the Jevons Paradox explains that better energy efficiency often results in more energy being used overall because energy becomes cheaper. This increase in energy use, called the "rebound effect," is not fully considered in Lovins' work.

Other ideas from Lovins have also been questioned. In his book Reinventing Fire, Lovins suggests that 50% of the United States' electricity could come from wind power by 2050. Other experts believe this is unlikely, estimating a maximum of about 30%. Similar concerns are raised about solar power, where Lovins' estimates of 30% are seen as 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 elected 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 shape Germany's Energiewende, most notably through his concept of "soft energy" and how it supports peace and prosperity.

Lovins was a senior Ashoka Fellow in 2009.

Personal life

In 1979, Amory Lovins married L. Hunter Sheldon, who was 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 co-written with others:

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

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