Download or read book Between Air and Electricity written by Cathy van Eck and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-02-09 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Composers and sound artists have explored for decades how to transform microphones and loudspeakers from “inaudible” technology into genuinely new musical instruments. While the sound reproduction industry had claimed perfect high fidelity already at the beginning of the twentieth century, these artists found surprising ways of use – for instance tweaking microphones, swinging loudspeakers furiously around, ditching microphones in all kinds of vessels, or strapping loudspeakers to body parts of the audience. Between air and electricity traces their quest and sets forward a new theoretical framework, providing historic background on technological and artistic development, and diagrams of concert and performance set-ups. From popular noise musician Merzbow to minimalist classic Alvin Lucier, cult instrument inventor Hugh Davies, or contemporary visual artist Lynn Pook – they all aimed to make audible what was supposed to remain silent.
Download or read book The Earth and Atmospheric Electricity written by Vladimir Shuleikin and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to the provisions of the surface atmospheric electricity theory, the space charge of the surface air layer owes its origin to ionization by exhaling soil radon. According to field observations, a model representation of relations between hydrogen, methane, radon, and surface atmospheric electricity elements is composed. Bubbles of two volatile gases carry soil radon from a depth of 4-6 m to the near-surface atmosphere. As a consequence, light ions produced by ionization determine polar conductivity of the surface air; light ion aggregation with neutral condensation nuclei produces heavy ions primarily responsible for the atmospheric electric field. This means that the surface atmospheric electricity is determined by local geology and geodynamics.According to the field observations, the radon content in the surface soil layers is at least two orders of magnitude higher than the concentration of ionizer exhalation. A change in the soil radon content of a single percent will lead to a twofold change in the exhalation concentration, i.e., to a twofold change in the polar conductivities and the atmospheric electric field. This means that the surface atmospheric electricity elements will be extremely sensitive to variations in the subvertical carrier gas (hydrogen and methane) flow density.The results of multiple field observations prove the correctness of the above assumptions. The increased soil-atmosphere air exchange above fault zones, the basement top settling area, and the zones of natural or human-made soil loosening leads to an abrupt decrease in the atmospheric electric field and an increase in the polar air conductivity. An increase in the sub-vertical flow density of hydrogen above the ore body cap or methane in the oil field plume inevitably leads to low values of the atmospheric electric field within the deposit boundaries. The effect can be increased by the presence of natural or human-made seismic excitation in geological environments.The industrial level withdrawal of artesian waters is accompanied by a multiple increase in the atmospheric electric field above the area of hydrogeological processes; methane injection into the underground gas storage, industrial disposal of industrial wastewater leads to the opposite effect, i.e., a decrease of the atmospheric electric field. Taking into account the model constructed, complex measurements of surface atmospheric electricity elements--hydrogen and radon--allow for an indirect expression estimate of the soil methane content above the level of (10-6 - 10-5) vol.% and monitoring of the landslide stressed state.
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 Lights Out written by Jason Makansi and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2007-08-24 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A behind-the-scenes exposure why our electricity system is headed for a state of emergency-and what can be done to head it off Most people don't realize that skyrocketing global energy demand and economic growth severely affect the supply of electricity. Between production (power plants) and delivery is an antiquated, "third-world" transmission grid that is in desperate need of hardening against breakdowns, terrorist attacks, inadequate carrying capacity, and operational obsolescence. And while electricity doesn't hold the headlines or dramatic power of oil, the ability to ensure its uninterrupted supply at a reasonable price is even more essential to global survival and prosperity. Lights Out is today's most detailed, in-depth examination of this largely unreported looming energy crisis. Written by one of the world's top electricity industry experts, this powerful book covers numerous hot button economic and political issues-free markets versus regulation; energy independence versus foreign imports; nuclear power, global warming, and other environmental issues; and much more. Beyond just uncovering and illuminating the problems, however, it proposes a comprehensive road map of technical solutions and regulatory reform from both the production and demand sides of the equation-a framework for rethinking, rebuilding, and enhancing the entire electricity production and delivery infrastructure. Prescriptive and provocative, Lights Out will redefine the simmering debate on how the world can-and must-act now to head off a global catastrophe, one that could eventually wreak even more havoc than the ongoing oil crisis. Jason Makansi is the President of Pearl Street, Inc., a consulting firm; Principal of PS Liquidity Advisors, an advisory service for energy technology companies raising capital; and Executive Director of the Energy Storage Council, a public-policy advocacy organization. A prolific author, respected industry thought leader, and seasoned communicator, Mr. Makansi has been analyzing the technological, business, and regulatory issues in electricity production and delivery for over twenty-five years. He earned a BS in chemical engineering from Columbia University. His earlier books include An Investor’s Guide to the Electricity Economy, also published by John Wiley & Sons, and Managing Steam: An Engineering Guide to Commercial, Industrial, and Utility Systems.
Download or read book Power Lines written by Andrew Needham and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-26 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How high energy consumption transformed postwar Phoenix and deepened inequalities in the American Southwest In 1940, Phoenix was a small, agricultural city of sixty-five thousand, and the Navajo Reservation was an open landscape of scattered sheepherders. Forty years later, Phoenix had blossomed into a metropolis of 1.5 million people and the territory of the Navajo Nation was home to two of the largest strip mines in the world. Five coal-burning power plants surrounded the reservation, generating electricity for export to Phoenix, Los Angeles, and other cities. Exploring the postwar developments of these two very different landscapes, Power Lines tells the story of the far-reaching environmental and social inequalities of metropolitan growth, and the roots of the contemporary coal-fueled climate change crisis. Andrew Needham explains how inexpensive electricity became a requirement for modern life in Phoenix—driving assembly lines and cooling the oppressive heat. Navajo officials initially hoped energy development would improve their lands too, but as ash piles marked their landscape, air pollution filled the skies, and almost half of Navajo households remained without electricity, many Navajos came to view power lines as a sign of their subordination in the Southwest. Drawing together urban, environmental, and American Indian history, Needham demonstrates how power lines created unequal connections between distant landscapes and how environmental changes associated with suburbanization reached far beyond the metropolitan frontier. Needham also offers a new account of postwar inequality, arguing that residents of the metropolitan periphery suffered similar patterns of marginalization as those faced in America's inner cities. Telling how coal from Indian lands became the fuel of modernity in the Southwest, Power Lines explores the dramatic effects that this energy system has had on the people and environment of the region.
Download or read book A Question of Power written by Robert Bryce and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An acclaimed author and celebrated journalist breaks down the history of electricity and the impact of global energy use on the world and the environment. Global demand for power is doubling every two decades, but electricity remains one of the most difficult forms of energy to supply and do so reliably. Today, some three billion people live in places where per-capita electricity use is less than what's used by an average American refrigerator. How we close the colossal gap between the electricity rich and the electricity poor will determine our success in addressing issues like women's rights, inequality, and climate change. In A Question of Power, veteran journalist Robert Bryce tells the human story of electricity, the world's most important form of energy. Through onsite reporting from India, Iceland, Lebanon, Puerto Rico, New York, and Colorado, he shows how our cities, our money--our very lives--depend on reliable flows of electricity. He highlights the factors needed for successful electrification and explains why so many people are still stuck in the dark. With vivid writing and incisive analysis, he powerfully debunks the notion that our energy needs can be met solely with renewables and demonstrates why--if we are serious about addressing climate change--nuclear energy must play a much bigger role. Electricity has fueled a new epoch in the history of civilization. A Question of Power explains how that happened and what it means for our future.
Download or read book Power System Energy Storage Technologies written by Paul Breeze and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2018-05-16 with total page 101 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Power System Energy Storage Technologies provides a comprehensive analysis of the various technologies used to store electrical energy on both a small and large scale. Although expensive to implement, energy storage plants can offer significant benefits for the generation, distribution and use of electrical power. This is particularly important in renewable energy, which is intermittent in its supply. This book provides coverage of major technologies, such as sections on Pumped Storage Hydropower, Compressed-Air Energy Storage, Large Scale Batteries and Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage, each of which is presented with discussions of their operation, performance, efficiency and the costs associated with implementation and management. - Provides a description and analysis of various storage technologies, such as Pumped Storage Hydropower, Compressed-Air Energy Storage, Large Scale Batteries and Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage - Breaks down each storage type and analyzes their operation, performance, efficiency and costs - Considers how each energy storage plant benefits the generation distribution and use of electric power
Download or read book Dirty Electricity written by Samuel Milham MD MPH and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Thomas Edison began wiring New York City with a direct current electricity distribution system in the 1880s, he gave humankind the magic of electric light, heat, and power; in the process, though, he inadvertently opened a Pandoras Box of unimaginable illness and death. Dirty Electricity tells the story of Dr. Samuel Milham, the scientist who first alerted the world about the frightening link between occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields and human disease. Milham takes readers through his early years and education, following the twisting path that led to his discovery that most of the twentieth century diseases of civilization, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and suicide, are caused by electromagnetic field exposure. In the second edition, he explains how electrical exposure does its damage, and how electricity is causing our current epidemics of asthma, diabetes and obesity. Dr. Milham warns that because of the recent proliferation of radio frequency radiation from cell phones and towers, terrestrial antennas, Wi-Fi and Wi-max systems, broadband internet over power lines, and personal electronic equipment, we may be facing a looming epidemic of morbidity and mortality. In Dirty Electricity, he reveals the steps we must take, personally and as a society, to coexist with this marvelous but dangerous technology.
Download or read book Modeling and Simulation of Electricity Systems for Transport and Energy Storage written by Regina Lamedica and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2021-03-05 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book comprises five peer-reviewed articles covering original research articles on the modeling and simulation of electricity systems for transport and energy storage. The topics include: 1 - Optimal siting and sizing methodology to design an energy storage system (ESS) for railway lines; 2 - Technical–economic comparison between a 3 kV DC railway and the use of trains with on-board storage systems; 3 - How to improve electrical feeding substations, by changing transformer technology and by installing dedicated high-power-oriented storage systems; 4 - Algorithm applied to a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. 5 - Thermal investigation and optimization of an air-cooled lithium-ion battery pack.
Download or read book Power Trip written by Michael E. Webber and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A global tour of energy--the builder of human civilization and also its greatest threat. Energy is humanity's single most important resource. In fact, as energy expert Michael E. Webber argues in Power Trip, the story of how societies rise can be told largely as the story of how they manage energy sources through time. In 2019, as we face down growing demand for and accumulating environmental impacts from energy, we are at a crossroads and the stakes are high. But history shows us that energy's great value is that it allows societies to reinvent themselves. Power Trip explores how energy has transformed societies of the past and offers wisdom for today's looming energy crisis. There is no magic bullet; energy advances always come with costs. Scientific innovation needs public support. Energy initiatives need to be tailored to individual societies. We must look for long-term solutions. Our current energy crisis is real, but it is solvable. We have the power.
Download or read book Empires of Light written by Jill Jonnes and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2004-10-12 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The gripping history of electricity and how the fateful collision of Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and George Westinghouse left the world utterly transformed. In the final decades of the nineteenth century, three brilliant and visionary titans of America’s Gilded Age—Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and George Westinghouse—battled bitterly as each vied to create a vast and powerful electrical empire. In Empires of Light, historian Jill Jonnes portrays this extraordinary trio and their riveting and ruthless world of cutting-edge science, invention, intrigue, money, death, and hard-eyed Wall Street millionaires. At the heart of the story are Thomas Alva Edison, the nation’s most famous and folksy inventor, creator of the incandescent light bulb and mastermind of the world’s first direct current electrical light networks; the Serbian wizard of invention Nikola Tesla, elegant, highly eccentric, a dreamer who revolutionized the generation and delivery of electricity; and the charismatic George Westinghouse, Pittsburgh inventor and tough corporate entrepreneur, an industrial idealist who in the era of gaslight imagined a world powered by cheap and plentiful electricity and worked heart and soul to create it. Edison struggled to introduce his radical new direct current (DC) technology into the hurly-burly of New York City as Tesla and Westinghouse challenged his dominance with their alternating current (AC), thus setting the stage for one of the eeriest feuds in American corporate history, the War of the Electric Currents. The battlegrounds: Wall Street, the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, Niagara Falls, and, finally, the death chamber—Jonnes takes us on the tense walk down a prison hallway and into the sunlit room where William Kemmler, convicted ax murderer, became the first man to die in the electric chair.
Download or read book Power Generation Technologies written by Paul Breeze and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2005-02-04 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book makes intelligible the wide range of electricity generating technologies available today, as well as some closely allied technologies such as energy storage. The book opens by setting the many power generation technologies in the context of global energy consumption, the development of the electricity generation industry and the economics involved in this sector. A series of chapters are each devoted to assessing the environmental and economic impact of a single technology, including conventional technologies, nuclear and renewable (such as solar, wind and hydropower). The technologies are presented in an easily digestible form.Different power generation technologies have different greenhouse gas emissions and the link between greenhouse gases and global warming is a highly topical environmental and political issue. With developed nations worldwide looking to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide, it is becoming increasingly important to explore the effectiveness of a mix of energy generation technologies.Power Generation Technologies gives a clear, unbiased review and comparison of the different types of power generation technologies available. In the light of the Kyoto protocol and OSPAR updates, Power Generation Technologies will provide an invaluable reference text for power generation planners, facility managers, consultants, policy makers and economists, as well as students and lecturers of related Engineering courses.· Provides a unique comparison of a wide range of power generation technologies - conventional, nuclear and renewable· Describes the workings and environmental impact of each technology· Evaluates the economic viability of each different power generation system
Download or read book Between Air and Electricity written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Earth s Electrical Environment written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1986-02-01 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This latest addition to the Studies in Geophysics series explores in scientific detail the phenomenon of lightning, cloud, and thunderstorm electricity, and global and regional electrical processes. Consisting of 16 papers by outstanding experts in a number of fields, this volume compiles and reviews many recent advances in such research areas as meteorology, chemistry, electrical engineering, and physics and projects how new knowledge could be applied to benefit mankind.
Download or read book Renewable and Efficient Electric Power Systems written by Gilbert M. Masters and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2005-01-03 with total page 676 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a comprehensive textbook for the new trend of distributed power generation systems and renewable energy sources in electric power systems. It covers the complete range of topics from fundamental concepts to major technologies as well as advanced topics for power consumers. An Instructor's Manual presenting detailed solutions to all the problems in the book is available from the Wiley editorial department -- to obtain the manual, send an email to [email protected]
Download or read book 100 Clean Renewable Energy and Storage for Everything written by Mark Z. Jacobson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-10 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Textbook on the science and methods behind a global transition to 100% clean, renewable energy for science, engineering, and social science students.
Download or read book The Experimental and Historical Foundations of Electricity written by André Koch Torres Assis and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
