Renewable Energy Sources for Fuels and Electricity

About this book

An assessment, by the world's 50 leading specialists in the area, of the technical and economic prospects for a wide range of options for making fuels and electricity from renewable energy. Recent technical gains suggest that, by the middle of the next century, renewable sources of energy could account for 60% of the world's electricity market and 40% of the market for fuels used directly. Those technical advances, the options resulting from them, and the policies needed to move to a renewables-intensive energy economy are all fully discussed in this book.

Contents

Renewable fuels and electricity for a growing world economy - defining and achieving the potential; hydropower and its constraints; wind energy - technology and economics; wind energy - resources, systems and regional strategies; solar-thermal electric technology; introduction to photovoltaic technology; crystalline - and polycrystalline - silicon solar cells; photovoltaic concentrator technology; amorphous silicon photovoltaic systems; polycrystalline thin-film photovoltaics; utility field experience with photovoltaic systems; ocean energy systems; geothermal energy; biomass for energy - supply prospects; bioenergy - direct applications in cooking; open-top wood gasifiers; advanced gasification-based biomass power generation; biogas electricity - the Pura village case study; anaerobic digestion for energy production and environmental protection; the Brazilian fuel-alcohol programme; ethanol and methanol from cellulosic biomass; solar hydrogen; electric utility strategies for renewables; a renewables-intensive global energy scenario.

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