Download or read book Understanding Energy Innovation written by Heather Lovell and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book uses smart grids to explore and better understand energy innovation, from a social science perspective. Understanding Energy Innovation has four core themes--networks, nodes, narratives and nostalgia--and each chapter tackles a theme, using case studies from Australia and Europe. Energy innovation is currently occurring at a rapid pace, in response to a host of problems including climate change, high energy prices, and unreliable supply. Understanding Energy Innovation provides ways to think about and plan for energy sector reform and innovation, drawing on core ideas from social and innovation theory, and centred on smart grids as a case study. These academic ideas are written about in an accessible way, recognising that a diversity of people have an interest in energy innovation generally, and smart grids more specifically, and would like to find out more about ways of understanding energy innovation that integrate the social and the political.
Download or read book Energy and Civilization written by Vaclav Smil and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society throughout history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. "I wait for new Smil books the way some people wait for the next 'Star Wars' movie. In his latest book, Energy and Civilization: A History, he goes deep and broad to explain how innovations in humans' ability to turn energy into heat, light, and motion have been a driving force behind our cultural and economic progress over the past 10,000 years. —Bill Gates, Gates Notes, Best Books of the Year Energy is the only universal currency; it is necessary for getting anything done. The conversion of energy on Earth ranges from terra-forming forces of plate tectonics to cumulative erosive effects of raindrops. Life on Earth depends on the photosynthetic conversion of solar energy into plant biomass. Humans have come to rely on many more energy flows—ranging from fossil fuels to photovoltaic generation of electricity—for their civilized existence. In this monumental history, Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. Humans are the only species that can systematically harness energies outside their bodies, using the power of their intellect and an enormous variety of artifacts—from the simplest tools to internal combustion engines and nuclear reactors. The epochal transition to fossil fuels affected everything: agriculture, industry, transportation, weapons, communication, economics, urbanization, quality of life, politics, and the environment. Smil describes humanity's energy eras in panoramic and interdisciplinary fashion, offering readers a magisterial overview. This book is an extensively updated and expanded version of Smil's Energy in World History (1994). Smil has incorporated an enormous amount of new material, reflecting the dramatic developments in energy studies over the last two decades and his own research over that time.
Download or read book The Political Economy of Clean Energy Transitions written by Douglas Arent and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 631 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A volume on the political economy of clean energy transition in developed and developing regions, with a focus on the issues that different countries face as they transition from fossil fuels to lower carbon technologies.
Download or read book Energy Innovation for the Twenty First Century written by Jim Skea and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2019 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the question: how effective are countries in promoting the innovation needed to facilitate an energy transition? At the heart of the book is a set of empirical case studies covering supply and demand side technologies at different levels of maturity in a variety of countries. The case studies are set within an analytical framework encompassing the functions of technological innovation systems and innovation metrics. The book concludes with lessons and recommendations for effective policy intervention.
Download or read book Energy Technology Innovation written by Arnulf Grubler and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An edited volume on factors determining success or failure of energy technology innovation, for researchers and policy makers.
Download or read book Designing Climate Solutions written by Hal Harvey and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2018-11-01 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the effects of climate change already upon us, the need to cut global greenhouse gas emissions is nothing less than urgent. It’s a daunting challenge, but the technologies and strategies to meet it exist today. A small set of energy policies, designed and implemented well, can put us on the path to a low carbon future. Energy systems are large and complex, so energy policy must be focused and cost-effective. One-size-fits-all approaches simply won’t get the job done. Policymakers need a clear, comprehensive resource that outlines the energy policies that will have the biggest impact on our climate future, and describes how to design these policies well. Designing Climate Solutions: A Policy Guide for Low-Carbon Energy is the first such guide, bringing together the latest research and analysis around low carbon energy solutions. Written by Hal Harvey, CEO of the policy firm Energy Innovation, with Robbie Orvis and Jeffrey Rissman of Energy Innovation, Designing Climate Solutions is an accessible resource on lowering carbon emissions for policymakers, activists, philanthropists, and others in the climate and energy community. In Part I, the authors deliver a roadmap for understanding which countries, sectors, and sources produce the greatest amount of greenhouse gas emissions, and give readers the tools to select and design efficient policies for each of these sectors. In Part II, they break down each type of policy, from renewable portfolio standards to carbon pricing, offering key design principles and case studies where each policy has been implemented successfully. We don’t need to wait for new technologies or strategies to create a low carbon future—and we can’t afford to. Designing Climate Solutions gives professionals the tools they need to select, design, and implement the policies that can put us on the path to a livable climate future.
Download or read book How Solar Energy Became Cheap written by Gregory F. Nemet and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-05-20 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Solar energy is a substantial global industry, one that has generated trade disputes among superpowers, threatened the solvency of large energy companies, and prompted serious reconsideration of electric utility regulation rooted in the 1930s. One of the biggest payoffs from solar’s success is not the clean inexpensive electricity it can produce, but the lessons it provides for innovation in other technologies needed to address climate change. Despite the large literature on solar, including analyses of increasingly detailed datasets, the question as to how solar became inexpensive and why it took so long still remains unanswered. Drawing on developments in the US, Japan, Germany, Australia, and China, this book provides a truly comprehensive and international explanation for how solar has become inexpensive. Understanding the reasons for solar’s success enables us to take full advantage of solar’s potential. It can also teach us how to support other low-carbon technologies with analogous properties, including small modular nuclear reactors and direct air capture. However, the urgency of addressing climate change means that a key challenge in applying the solar model is in finding ways to speed up innovation. Offering suggestions and policy recommendations for accelerated innovation is another key contribution of this book. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy technology and innovation, climate change and energy analysis and policy, as well as practitioners and policymakers working in the existing and emerging energy industries.
Download or read book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster written by Bill Gates and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical—and accessible—plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions—suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.
Download or read book Sustainable Energy written by David J. C. MacKay and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Energy Internet written by Wencong Su and published by Woodhead Publishing. This book was released on 2018-10-26 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Energy Internet: An Open Energy Platform to Transform Legacy Power Systems into Open Innovation and Global Economic Engines is an innovative concept that changes the way people generate, distribute and consume electrical energy. With the potential to transform the infrastructure of the electric grid, the book challenges existing power systems, presenting innovative and pioneering theories and technologies that will challenge existing norms on generation and consumption. Researchers, academics, engineers, consultants and policymakers will gain a thorough understanding of the Energy Internet that includes a thorough dissemination of case studies from the USA, China, Japan, Germany and the U.K. The book's editors provide analysis of various enabling technologies and technical solutions, such as control theory, communication, and the social and economic aspects that are central to obtaining a clear appreciation of the potential of this complex infrastructure. - Presents the first complete resource on the innovative concept of the Energy Internet - Provides a clear analysis of the architecture of the Energy Internet to ensure an understanding of the technologies behind generating, distributing and consuming electricity in this way - Includes a variety of global case studies of real-world implementation and pilot projects to thoroughly demonstrate the theoretical, technological and economic considerations
Download or read book Energy s Digital Future written by Amy Myers Jaffe and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Disruptive digital technologies are poised to reshape world energy markets. A new wave of industrial innovation, driven by the convergence of automation, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics, is remaking energy and transportation systems in ways that could someday end the age of oil. What are the consequences—not only for the environment and for daily life but also for geopolitics and the international order? Amy Myers Jaffe provides an expert look at the promises and challenges of the future of energy, highlighting what the United States needs to do to maintain its global influence in a post-oil era. She surveys new advances coming to market in on-demand travel services, automation, logistics, energy storage, artificial intelligence, and 3-D printing and explores how this rapid pace of innovation is altering international security dynamics in fundamental ways. As the United States vacillates politically about its energy trajectory, China is proactively striving to become the global frontrunner in a full-scale global energy transformation. In order to maintain its leadership role, Jaffe argues, the United States must embrace the digital revolution and foster American achievement. Bringing together analyses of technological innovation, energy policy, and geopolitics, Energy’s Digital Future gives indispensable insight into the path the United States will need to pursue to ensure its lasting economic competitiveness and national security in a new energy age.
Download or read book New Power written by Jeremy Heimans and published by Random House Canada. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From two influential and visionary thinkers comes a big idea that is changing the way movements catch fire and ideas spread in our highly connected world. For the vast majority of human history, power has been held by the few. "Old power" is closed, inaccessible, and leader-driven. Once gained, it is jealously guarded, and the powerful spend it carefully, like currency. But the technological revolution of the past two decades has made possible a new form of power, one that operates differently, like a current. "New power" is made by many; it is open, participatory, often leaderless, and peer-driven. Like water or electricity, it is most forceful when it surges. The goal with new power is not to hoard it, but to channel it. New power is behind the rise of participatory communities like Facebook and YouTube, sharing services like Uber and Airbnb, and rapid-fire social movements like Brexit and #BlackLivesMatter. It explains the unlikely success of Barack Obama's 2008 campaign and the unlikelier victory of Donald Trump in 2016. And it gives ISIS its power to propagate its brand and distribute its violence. Even old power institutions like the Papacy, NASA, and LEGO have tapped into the strength of the crowd to stage improbable reinventions. In New Power, the business leaders/social visionaries Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms provide the tools for using new power to successfully spread an idea or lead a movement in the twenty-first century. Drawing on examples from business, politics, and social justice, they explain the new world we live in--a world where connectivity has made change shocking and swift and a world in which everyone expects to participate.
Download or read book Enhancing Federal Clean Energy Innovation written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by . This book was released on 2021-08-30 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A widespread and rapid transition to a low-carbon energy system by 2050 is essential to keep pace with ambitious policy goals and avoid the worst consequences of climate change. Innovation is necessary to lower costs and improve performance of existing technologies and to develop new clean energy options that address challenges in harder-to-decarbonize sectors. To examine means by which the U.S. federal government can rise to this challenge, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a virtual workshop series "Enhancing Federal Clean Energy Innovation" on July 27 to August 7, 2020. The workshop featured timely, action-orientated assessments of how to strengthen development and penetration of new clean energy technologies. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions that occurred over the course of the workshop.
Download or read book Citizen Activities in Energy Transition written by Sampsa Hyysalo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2023-01-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction : citizens in energy innovation and sociotechnical change -- The biographies of artifacts and practices methodology for the study of sociotechnical change -- Initial focus : user innovation in sustainable energy technologies -- Broadening the inquiry : new internet-based energy communities -- Zooming out : user activities and series of configurational movements in energy transition -- Conclusions and implications for management and policy.
Download or read book The Wind Power Story written by Brandon N. Owens and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-07-26 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Helps readers understand and appreciate what the history of wind power can teach us about technology innovation and provides the implications for both wind power today and its future This book takes readers on a journey through the history of wind power in order to show how the technology evolved over the course of the twentieth century and where it may be headed in the twenty-first century. It introduces and examines broad themes such as government funding of wind power, the role of fossil fuels in wind power development, and the importance of entrepreneurs in wind power development. It also discusses the lessons learned from wind power technology innovation and makes them relevant to the understanding of wind power today and in the future. Spanning the entire history of wind power (1888-2018), The Wind Power Story: A Century of Innovation that Reshaped the Global Energy Landscape provides balanced coverage of each decade as well as the important wind power technology innovations that occurred during that time. Compelling from the first page to the last, it offers chapters covering the pioneers of wind power; the age of small wind; wind power in the wake of war; wind power’s use across Europe; government-funded research programs; how Denmark reinvented wind power in the 1970s; the California Wind Rush of the 1980s; wind power’s rise in Spain; America’s wind power starting in the 1990s; India’s wind power path; the wind power surge in China; the globalization of wind power; and much more. In addition, this text: Spans the entire global history of wind power, while weaving together both the historical context and the technical details of wind power innovation Provides historical context for wind power developments and explains the evolution of wind turbine technology in an easy-to-understand manner Discusses the policy, technology, and market evolution of wind power in commonly understood language Offers a review of the surrounding power technology, policy, and market environment throughout the history of wind power A book that both specialists and non-specialists can read in order to understand and appreciate the past, present, and future of wind power technology, The Wind Power Story: A Century of Innovation that Reshaped the Global Energy Landscape will be of great interest to any engineer and any interested readers looking to understand wind power technologies, markets, and policies in one book.
Download or read book Green Innovation in China written by Joanna I Lewis and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-27 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the greatest coal-producing and consuming nation in the world, China would seem an unlikely haven for wind power. Yet the country now boasts a world-class industry that promises to make low-carbon technology more affordable and available to all. Conducting an empirical study of China's remarkable transition and the possibility of replicating their model elsewhere, Joanna I. Lewis adds greater depth to a theoretical understanding of China's technological innovation systems and its current and future role in a globalized economy. Lewis focuses on China's specific methods of international technology transfer, its forms of international cooperation and competition, and its implementation of effective policies promoting the development of a home-grown industry. Just a decade ago, China maintained only a handful of operating wind turbines—all imported from Europe and the United States. Today, the country is the largest wind power market in the world, with turbines made almost exclusively in its own factories. Following this shift reveals how China's political leaders have responded to domestic energy challenges and how they may confront encroaching climate change. The nation's escalation of its wind power use also demonstrates China's ability to leapfrog to cleaner energy technologies—an option equally viable for other developing countries hoping to bypass gradual industrialization and the "technological lock-in" of hydrocarbon-intensive energy infrastructure. Though setbacks are possible, China could one day come to dominate global wind turbine sales, becoming a hub of technological innovation and a major instigator of low-carbon economic change.
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.
