Download or read book Realizing a Clean Energy Future written by National Renewable National Renewable Energy Laboratory and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-06-16 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, another profound transformation is underway. A combination of forces is taking us from a carbon-centric, inefficient energy system to one that emphasizes efficiency and draws from diverse energy sources-including the sun. In 2012, more than half of total net additions to global electric generating capacity came from renewable sources. Since 2008, U.S. electricity generation from wind and solar power has more than doubled. Sharp and largely unforeseen growth in the U.S. shale gas market has altered the dynamics of the global energy landscape and helped spark a renaissance in U.S. manufacturing. These changes, together with improvements in energy efficiency and a changing transportation sector, have contributed to a drop in U.S. carbon emissions, which hit a 20-year low in 2012. At the same time, the business of energy is changing from one focused on kilowatt hours to one focused on services. The roles that distribution and transmission play could change dramatically as we move toward an energy system that is more diverse, more dispersed, and more carbon neutral. Energy is becoming a more essential component of strategies to safeguard and improve our security, economy, and environment. As the U.S. Energy Department's only national laboratory focused on renewable energy and energy efficiency, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is uniquely positioned to help inform and guide energy system transformation. NREL complements its scientific research with high- quality, credible, technology-neutral, and objective analysis that spans the entire energy portfolio to inform policy and investment decisions as renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies move from concept to commercialization to market penetration. For 35 years, our work with the public and private sectors has catalyzed the emergence of a clean energy industry that is creating jobs and providing viable, low-carbon energy options at home and around the world.
Download or read book Our Renewable Energy Future The Remarkable Story Of How Renewable Energy Will Become The Basis For Our Lives written by Douglas Arent and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2024-05-24 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our Renewable Energy Future delves into the clean energy technology evolution and where our energy system is going. While the book's foundation is technology innovation, it brings a unique perspective that technology alone is not what has brought about the explosive growth of renewable energy and offers fresh insights into how technology, economics, social dynamics, policy, and geopolitics are forces affecting our energy future. This book is a culmination of Dr Arent's lifelong passion for energy, sustainable development, and renewable energy technology. It covers the journey of evolving technology, economics, political economy and geopolitics of clean energy over the last 40 years and provides insights for the coming decades. From a technology perspective, the book traces the arc of recent innovations and synthesizes innovations across multiple interacting perspectives into a description of Our Renewable Energy Future.
Download or read book Our Renewable Future written by Richard Heinberg and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2016-06-02 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Over the next few decades, we will see a profound energy transformation as society shifts from fossil fuels to renewable resources like solar, wind, biomass. But what might a one hundred percent renewable future actually look like, and what obstacles will we face in this transition? Authors explore the practical challenges and opportunities presented by the shift to renewable energy."--Page 4 of cover.
Download or read book Scenarios for a Clean Energy Future written by United States. Department of Energy. Interlaboratory Working Group on Energy-Efficient and Clean Energy Technologies and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2000 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Realizing a Clean Energy Future written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Profound energy system transformation is underway. In Hawaiian mythology, Maui set out to lasso the sun in order to capture its energy. He succeeded. That may have been the most dramatic leap forward in clean energy systems that the world has known. Until now. Today, another profound transformation is underway. A combination of forces is taking us from a carbon-centric, inefficient energy system to one that draws from diverse energy sources - including the sun. NREL analysis is helping guide energy systems policy and investment decisions through this transformation. This brochure highlights NREL analysis accomplishments in the context of four thematic storylines.
Download or read book The Hydrogen Age written by Geoffrey B. Holland and published by Gibbs Smith. This book was released on 2007 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Hydrogen linked with clean, renewable sources of energy provides the prescription for the ills of an ailing planet. Geoffrey B. Holland and James J. Provencano's hallmark book 'The hydrogen age' details just how this remarkable energy carrier has been vital tot he workings of the universe since the beginning of time, and why it is now ready to play a central part in healing our Earth, our atmosphere, and the world's economies as a clean-energy commodity." - book jacket.
Download or read book Journey To The Future written by Guy Dauncey and published by Agio Publishing House. This book was released on 2015-12-01 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this blockbuster novel, young protagonist Patrick Wu visits a future world - Vancouver in 2032 - brimming with innovation and hope, where the climate crisis is being tackled, the solar revolution is underway and a new cooperative economy is taking shape. Dauncey's "brilliant book shows solutions to the climate crisis that offer a future rich in opportunity and joy" - scientist and award-winning broadcaster David Suzuki. Scientists, activists and politicians are enthusiastic in advance praise for Guy Dauncey's ecotopian novel, Journey To The Future. From Elizabeth May, NDP MP Murray Rankin and UK Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, to activists Tzeporah Berman, Angela Bischoff and Bill McKibben, and scientists David Suzuki, Andrew Weaver and Elisabet Sahtouris, the endorsements for Guy Dauncey's new book are united: Journey To The Future is a gamechanger that must be widely read. In this blockbuster novel, young protagonist Patrick Wu visits a future world - Vancouver in 2032 - brimming with innovation and hope, where the climate crisis is being tackled, the solar revolution is underway and a new cooperative economy is taking shape. But enormous danger still lurks. David R. Boyd, co-chair of Vancouver's Greenest City initiative, says Journey To The Future is "an imaginative tour de force, blending science, philosophy and fiction into a delightful story about how we can and must change the world." About the author, Guy Dauncey Guy Dauncey is a futurist who works to develop a positive vision of a sustainable future and to translate that vision into action. He is founder of the BC Sustainable Energy Association, and the author or co-author of ten books, including the award-winning Cancer: 101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic and The Climate Challenge: 101 Solutions to Global Warming. He is an Honorary Member of the Planning Institute of BC, a Fellow of the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland, and a powerful motivational speaker.
Download or read book Green Energy Economies written by John Byrne and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Green Energy Economies offers insight into the major drivers that are shaping a new future powered by clean energy sources. Assembling cutting-edge researchers as contributors, the book provides a comprehensive account of the shift underway, examining in detail the complexities and intricacies involved with such a transition. The book first details the promises and problems of a green energy transition. Next, it explores the economic benefits that a comprehensive strategy toward a green energy economy might create. Then it investigates how communities will be affected and explores the social, cultural, and other changes that are likely to result. Finally, it explores the shift toward new technologies in-depth. Green Energy Economies concludes with policy options that support a transition to a better energy, environmental, and economic future. The contributors argue that a green energy economy offers great promise, but its realization will require making hard choices, and soon. They argue for investments in renewable energy and economic systems that can deliver a sustainable and equitable future. This book makes a forceful case for a green future.
Download or read book Crossing the Energy Divide written by Robert U. Ayres and published by Pearson Prentice Hall. This book was released on 2009-12-20 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If we continue our highly inefficient, dangerous energy usage, we’re headed for both economic and environmental catastrophe. However, the hard truth is that alternative fuels can’t fully replace fossil fuels for decades. What’s more, new research indicates that energy inefficiencies are retarding economic growth even more than most experts ever realized. Crossing the Energy Divide is about solving all these problems at once. The authors, two leading experts in energy and environmental economics, show how massive improvements in energy efficiency can bridge the global economy until clean renewables can fully replace fossil fuels. Robert and Edward Ayres demonstrate how we can radically reform the way we manage our existing energy systems to double the amount of “energy service” we get from every drop of fossil fuel we use. These techniques require no scientific breakthroughs: Many companies and institutions are applying them right now, but tens of thousands more could. This book offers a strategic guide for using them to solve the energy crisis once and for all—reducing carbon emissions, achieving true energy security, and reigniting economic growth for decades to come. More energy, without more emissions Recapturing lost energy from today’s fossil fuels There is such a thing as a free lunch Mitigating climate disaster and improving prosperity at the same time The future of electricity Reforming tomorrow’s electrical system: smarter, more productive, and more reliable The implications for cities, transportation, business, and government Making the decisions that prepare you for a high-cost energy future
Download or read book Electrify written by Saul Griffith and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2022-10-04 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An optimistic--but realistic and feasible--action plan for fighting climate change while creating new jobs and a healthier environment: electrify everything. Climate change is a planetary emergency. We have to do something now—but what? Saul Griffith has a plan. In Electrify, Griffith lays out a detailed blueprint—optimistic but feasible—for fighting climate change while creating millions of new jobs and a healthier environment. Griffith’s plan can be summed up simply: electrify everything. He explains exactly what it would take to transform our infrastructure, update our grid, and adapt our households to make this possible. Billionaires may contemplate escaping our worn-out planet on a private rocket ship to Mars, but the rest of us, Griffith says, will stay and fight for the future. Griffith, an engineer and inventor, calls for grid neutrality, ensuring that households, businesses, and utilities operate as equals; we will have to rewrite regulations that were created for a fossil-fueled world, mobilize industry as we did in World War II, and offer low-interest “climate loans.” Griffith’s plan doesn’t rely on big, not-yet-invented innovations, but on thousands of little inventions and cost reductions. We can still have our cars and our houses—but the cars will be electric and solar panels will cover our roofs. For a world trying to bounce back from a pandemic and economic crisis, there is no other project that would create as many jobs—up to twenty-five million, according to one economic analysis. Is this politically possible? We can change politics along with everything else.
Download or read book Green written by Jane S. Hoffman and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-06-24 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Hoffmans use their years of experience to explain the technological and economic future of renewable energy, incisively explaining its politics and what the U.S. "should" be doing.
Download or read book Fact and Fiction in Global Energy Policy written by Benjamin K. Sovacool and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2016-04-29 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A balanced examination of global energy issues. Energy sustainability and climate change are two of the greatest challenges facing humankind. Unraveling these complex and interconnected issues demands careful and objective assessment. Fact and Fiction in Global Energy Policy aims to change the prevailing discourse by examining fifteen core energy questions from a variety of perspectives, demonstrating how, for each of them, no clear-cut answer exists. Is industry the chief energy villain? Can we sustainably feed and fuel the planet at the same time? Is nuclear energy worth the risk? Should geoengineering be outlawed? Touching on pollution, climate mitigation and adaptation, energy efficiency, government intervention, and energy security, the authors explore interrelated concepts of law, philosophy, ethics, technology, economics, psychology, sociology, and public policy. This book offers a much-needed critical appraisal of the central energy technology and policy dilemmas of our time and the impact of these on multiple stakeholders.
Download or read book Rural Renaissance written by L. Michelle Moore and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2022-08-16 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For decades, we've heard that local, renewable power is on the horizon, and that cheaper technologies will revolutionize our energy system. Michelle Moore has spent her career proving that this opportunity is already here--and that any community, no matter how small, can build their own clean energy future. In Rural Renaissance, Moore describes five pathways to clean power in rural America and strategies for building it, including energy efficiency, renewable power, resilience (including microgrids and battery storage), the electrification of transportation, and finally, broadband internet. This accessible guide offers a vision of thriving rural communities where clean power is the spark that leads to greater investment, vitality, and equity.
Download or read book Charting a Clean Energy Future for the Insular Areas written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Natural Resources. Subcommittee on Insular Affairs and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Power of Change written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-09-30 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Electricity, supplied reliably and affordably, is foundational to the U.S. economy and is utterly indispensable to modern society. However, emissions resulting from many forms of electricity generation create environmental risks that could have significant negative economic, security, and human health consequences. Large-scale installation of cleaner power generation has been generally hampered because greener technologies are more expensive than the technologies that currently produce most of our power. Rather than trade affordability and reliability for low emissions, is there a way to balance all three? The Power of Change: Innovation for Development and Deployment of Increasingly Clean Energy Technologies considers how to speed up innovations that would dramatically improve the performance and lower the cost of currently available technologies while also developing new advanced cleaner energy technologies. According to this report, there is an opportunity for the United States to continue to lead in the pursuit of increasingly clean, more efficient electricity through innovation in advanced technologies. The Power of Change: Innovation for Development and Deployment of Increasingly Clean Energy Technologies makes the case that America's advantagesâ€"world-class universities and national laboratories, a vibrant private sector, and innovative states, cities, and regions that are free to experiment with a variety of public policy approachesâ€"position the United States to create and lead a new clean energy revolution. This study focuses on five paths to accelerate the market adoption of increasing clean energy and efficiency technologies: (1) expanding the portfolio of cleaner energy technology options; (2) leveraging the advantages of energy efficiency; (3) facilitating the development of increasing clean technologies, including renewables, nuclear, and cleaner fossil; (4) improving the existing technologies, systems, and infrastructure; and (5) leveling the playing field for cleaner energy technologies. The Power of Change: Innovation for Development and Deployment of Increasingly Clean Energy Technologies is a call for leadership to transform the United States energy sector in order to both mitigate the risks of greenhouse gas and other pollutants and to spur future economic growth. This study's focus on science, technology, and economic policy makes it a valuable resource to guide support that produces innovation to meet energy challenges now and for the future.
Download or read book Hitting the Wall written by Richard Caputo and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-06-01 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hitting the Wall examines the combination of two intractable energy problems of our age: the peaking of global oil production and the overloading of the atmosphere with greenhouse gases. Both emerge from the overconsumption of fossil fuels and solving one problem helps solve the other. The misinformation campaign about climate change is discussed as is the role that noncarbon energy solutions can play. There are nine major components in the proposed noncarbon strategy including energy efficiency and renewable energy. Economics and realistic restraints are considered and the total carbon reduction by 2030 is evaluated, and the results show that this strategy will reduce the carbon emission in the United States to be on track to an 80% reduction in 2050. The prospects for “clean” coal and “acceptable” nuclear are considered, and there is some hope that they would be used in an interim role. Although there are significant technical challenges to assembling these new energy systems, the primary difficulty lies in the political arena. A multigenerational strategy is needed to guide our actions over the next century. Garnering long-term multiadministration coherent policies to put the elements of any proposed strategy in place, is a relatively rare occurrence in the United States. More common is the reversal of one policy by the next administration with counterproductive results. A framework for politically stable action is developed using the framework of “energy tribes” where all the disparate voices in the energy debate are included and considered in a “messy process.” This book provides hope that our descendants in the next century will live in a world that would be familiar to us. This can only be achieved if the United States plays an active leadership role in maintaining climatic balance. Table of Contents: Introduction / The End of Cheap Oil / Carbon - Too Much of a Good Thing / Carbonless Energy Options / Conventional Energy / Policy for Whom? / Call to Arms / References
Download or read book Life after Fossil Fuels written by Alice J. Friedemann and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-03-29 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a reality check of where energy will come from in the future. Today, our economy is utterly dependent on fossil fuels. They are essential to transportation, manufacturing, farming, electricity, and to make fertilizers, cement, steel, roads, cars, and half a million other products. One day, sooner or later, fossil fuels will no longer be abundant and affordable. Inevitably, one day, global oil production will decline. That time may be nearer than we realize. Some experts predict oil shortages as soon as 2022 to 2030. What then are our options for replacing the fossil fuels that turn the great wheel of civilization? Surveying the arsenal of alternatives – wind, solar, hydrogen, geothermal, nuclear, batteries, catenary systems, fusion, methane hydrates, power2gas, wave, tidal power and biomass – this book examines whether they can replace or supplement fossil fuels. The book also looks at substitute energy sources from the standpoint of the energy users. Manufacturing, which uses half of fossil fuels, often requires very high heat, which in many cases electricity can't provide. Industry uses fossil fuels as a feedstock for countless products, and must find substitutes. And, as detailed in the author's previous book, "When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation," ships, locomotives, and heavy-duty trucks are fueled by diesel. What can replace diesel? Taking off the rose-colored glasses, author Alice Friedemann analyzes our options. What alternatives should we deploy right now? Which technologies merit further research and development? Which are mere wishful thinking that, upon careful scrutiny, dematerialize before our eyes? Fossil fuels have allowed billions of us to live like kings. Fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, we changed the equation constraining the carrying capacity of our planet. As fossil fuels peak and then decline, will we fall back to Earth? Are there viable alternatives?
