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 Energy at the Crossroads written by Vaclav Smil and published by Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An objective, comprehensive and accessible examination of today's most crucial problem: preserving the environment in the face of society's insatiable demand for energy.
Download or read book Sustainable Energy written by Jefferson W. Tester and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evaluates trade-offs and uncertainties inherent in achieving sustainable energy, analyzes the major energy technologies, and provides a framework for assessing policy options.
Download or read book Energy Democracy written by Denise Fairchild and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2017-10-12 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The near-unanimous consensus among climate scientists is that the massive burning of gas, oil, and coal is having cataclysmic impacts on our atmosphere and climate. These climate and environmental impacts are particularly magnified and debilitating for low-income communities and communities of color. Energy democracy tenders a response and joins the environmental and climate movement with broader movements for social and economic change in this country and around the world. Energy Democracy brings together racial, cultural, and generational perspectives to show what an alternative, democratized energy future can look like. The book will inspire others to take up the struggle to build the energy democracy movement.
Download or read book Typical Electric Bills written by and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Third Generation Photovoltaics written by Martin A. Green and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-09-05 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Photovoltaics, the direct conversion of sunlight to electricity, is now the fastest growing technology for electricity generation. Present "first generation" products use the same silicon wafers as in microelectronics. "Second generation" thin-films, now entering the market, have the potential to greatly improve the economics by eliminating material costs. Martin Green, one of the world’s foremost photovoltaic researchers, argues in this book that "second generation" photovoltaics will eventually reach its own material cost constraints, engendering a "third generation" of high performance thin-films. The book explores, self-consistently, the energy conversion potential of advanced approaches for improving photovoltaic performance and outlines possible implementation paths.
Download or read book The Energy System written by Travis Bradford and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-09-11 with total page 1211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive textbook that integrates tools from technology, economics, markets, and policy to approach energy issues using a dynamic systems and capital-centric perspective. The global energy system is the vital foundation of modern human industrial society. Traditionally studied through separate disciplines of engineering, economics, environment, or public policy, this system can be fully understood only by using an approach that integrates these tools. This textbook is the first to take a dynamic systems perspective on understanding energy systems, tracking energy from primary resource to final energy services through a long and capital-intensive supply chain bounded by both macroeconomic and natural resource systems. The book begins with a framework for understanding how energy is transformed as it moves through the system with the aid of various types of capital, its movement influenced by a combination of the technical, market, and policy conditions at the time. It then examines the three primary energy subsystems of electricity, transportation, and thermal energy, explaining such relevant topics as systems thinking, cost estimation, capital formation, market design, and policy tools. Finally, the book reintegrates these subsystems and looks at their relation to the economic system and the ecosystem that they inhabit. Practitioners and theorists from any field will benefit from a deeper understanding of both existing dynamic energy system processes and potential tools for intervention.
Download or read book Routes of Power written by Christopher F. Jones and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-07 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fossil fuel revolution is usually a tale of advances in energy production. Christopher Jones tells a tale of advances in energy access—canals, pipelines, wires delivering cheap, abundant power to cities at a distance from production sites. Between 1820 and 1930 these new transportation networks set the U.S. on a path to fossil fuel dependence.
Download or read book The Massachusetts register written by and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Financial Statistics of Selected Electric Utilities written by and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 1096 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Renewable Energy System Design written by Ziyad Salameh and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2014-05-12 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The limitation of fossil fuels has challenged scientists and engineers to search for alternative energy resources that can meet future energy demand. Renewable Energy System Design is a valuable reference focusing on engineering, design, and operating principles that engineers can follow in order to successfully design more robust and efficient renewable energy systems. Written by Dr. Ziyad Salameh, an expert with over thirty years of teaching, research, and design experience, Renewable Energy System Design provides readers with the "nuts and bolts" of photovoltaic, wind energy, and hybrid wind/PV systems. It explores renewable energy storage devices with an emphasis on batteries and fuel cells and emerging sustainable technologies like biomass, geothermal power, ocean thermal energy conversion, solar thermal, and satellite power. Renewable Energy System Design is a must-have resource that provides engineers and students with a comprehensive yet practical guide to the characteristics, principles of operation, and power potential of the most prevalent renewable energy systems. - Explains and demonstrates design and operating principles for solar, wind, hybrid and emerging systems with diagrams and examples - Utilizes case studies to help engineers anticipate and overcome common design challenges - Explores renewable energy storage methods particularly batteries and fuel cells and emerging renewable technologies
Download or read book Energy at the End of the World written by Laura Watts and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making local energy futures, from marine energy to hydrogen fuel, at the edge of the world. The islands of Orkney, off the northern coast of Scotland, are closer to the Arctic Circle than to London. Surrounded by fierce seas and shrouded by clouds and mist, the islands seem to mark the edge of the known world. And yet they are a center for energy technology innovation, from marine energy to hydrogen fuel networks, attracting the interest of venture capitalists and local communities. In this book, Laura Watts tells a story of making energy futures at the edge of the world. Orkney, Watts tells us, has been making technology for six thousand years, from arrowheads and stone circles to wave and tide energy prototypes. Artifacts and traces of all the ages—Stone, Bronze, Iron, Viking, Silicon—are visible everywhere. The islanders turned to energy innovation when forced to contend with an energy infrastructure they had outgrown. Today, Orkney is home to the European Marine Energy Centre, established in 2003. There are about forty open-sea marine energy test facilities in the world, many of which draw on Orkney expertise. The islands generate more renewable energy than they use, are growing hydrogen fuel and electric car networks, and have hundreds of locally owned micro wind turbines and a decade-old smart grid. Mixing storytelling and ethnography, empiricism and lyricism, Watts tells an Orkney energy saga—an account of how the islands are creating their own low-carbon future in the face of the seemingly impossible. The Orkney Islands, Watts shows, are playing a long game, making energy futures for another six thousand years.
Download or read book Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Reports written by United States. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 2382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Prelicensing Antitrust Review of Nuclear Powerplants written by United States. Congress. Joint Committee on Atomic Energy and published by . This book was released on 1970 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Energy Research Abstracts written by and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 1162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Inventory of Power Plants in the United States written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Bonbright Survey of Electric Power and Light Companies of the United States written by Bonbright & Company and published by . This book was released on 1927 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
