Boy, if you really want to understand energy (both its demand and its supply) and its distribution (the Grid) this is the book to read BUT you must skip its INTRODUCTION completely! I have the distinct feeling that the author was forced by his publisher to add an introduction in an effort to bolster his bona fides as an advocate for renewable energy which was wholly unnecessary since Mr. Kelly-Detwiler clearly is such a person. After you skip over the introduction read the rest of The Energy Switch carefully because it is full of important facts and figures. My only other criticisms are that this book fails to reflect the research done by Vaclav Smil (a Penn Stater like me) that every energy switch in history (wood to coal, coal to oil, etc.) has happened very slowly and have always taken at least 50 years to accomplish and that Kelly-Detwiler's book focuses on the US at the expense of the rest of the world which gives The Energy Switch a slanted view of energy and its distribution.