Beyond Jevons: the Fourth Law of Thermodynamics - The Maximum Power Principle [View all]

[GliderGuider]

I read a mention of the Maximum Power Principle on a mail list earlier today. It triggered an old unused memory of encountering the idea a few years ago, and in light of our recent discussions of the Jevons paradox I looked into it again. It's likely that this principle has much more to say about our society's use of energy and energy efficiency than Jevons.

Basically the principle says that those systems that use the most power (i.e. energy used to do useful work), and use it most efficiently, tend to prevail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximum_power_principle

The maximum power principle has been proposed as the fourth principle of energetics in open system thermodynamics, where an example of an open system is a biological cell. According to Howard T. Odum (H.T.Odum 1995, p. 311), "The maximum power principle can be stated: During self-organization, system designs develop and prevail that maximize power intake, energy transformation, and those uses that reinforce production and efficiency."

The idea was developed first by Alfred Lotka in 1922 in an attempt to relate the evolution of biological systems to physical principles. Odum had this to say in 1970:

Lotka provided the theory of natural selection as a maximum power organizer; under competitive conditions systems are selected which use their energies in various structural-developing actions so as to maximize their use of available energies.

Whether or not the principle of maximum power efficiency can be considered the fourth law of thermodynamics and the fourth principle of energetics is moot. Nevertheless, H.T.Odum also proposed a corollary of maximum power as the organisational principle of evolution, describing the evolution of microbiological systems, economic systems, planetary systems, and astrophysical systems. He called this corollary the maximum empower principle.

Odum saw this principle as the ecological analog of Ohm's Law.

This prompts the thought that our civilization has evolved on the basis of this principle, which is effectively "built into" our very existence as organisms. We are predisposed to use all the energy we have available, and use it in the most efficient way possible, to meet the needs of society. Unfortunately, it also implies that it will be very difficult to achieve reductions in overall system-wide energy use, whether through efficiency or simple restraint. Since fossil fuels are the very essence of "available", we as organisms and as a civilization seem predisposed to use as much of them as we can get our hands on, so long as the need for energy remains.