United States
£ GBP
The provision of sustainable energy supplies for an expanding and increasingly productive world is one of the major issues facing civilisation today. Renewable Energy: Power for a Sustainable Future examines both the practical and economic potential of the "renewable energy" sources to meet this challenge. The underlying physical and technological principles behind deriving power from direct solar (solar thermal and photovoltaics), indirect solar (biomass, hydro, wind and wave) and non-solar (tidal and geothermal) energy sources are explained, within the context of their environmental impacts, their economics and their future prospects.
Together with its companion volume, Energy Systems and Sustainability, this book provides both perspective and detail on the relative merits and state of progress of technologies for utilizing the various 'renewables'. The analysis considers emissions, sustainability, cost implications and energy security, as political and economic pressures move society towards a low-carbon future. From an overview of basic energy conversion processes, through a discussion of the individual renewable sources, to a concluding examination of the prospects for their integration into national and international networks, this book provides a valuable insight into prospects for the renewables.
1: Introducing Renewable Energy
2: Solar Thermal Energy
3: Solar Photovoltaics
4: Bioenergy
5: Hydroelectricity
6: Tidal Power
7: Wind Energy
8: Wave Energy
9: Geothermal Energy
10: Integrating Renewable Energy
Godfrey Boyle is Professor of Renewable Energy in The Open University's MCT Faculty. His main research interests are in solar and wind power, energy systems modelling and energy policy, and he has chaired various Open University modules on renewable and sustainable energy. He is also a visiting professor at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) University in New Delhi, India, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and a Trustee of the UK National Energy Foundation.
Reviews from the previous editions:
"This is an excellent introductory text which deserves the widest readership."
- Book Review 2004
"This is an outstanding undergraduate textbook which deserves to become the standard text. I can only urge all those who are teaching courses in the field and all students, formal or otherwise, to read and treasure this book."
- Professor Robert Hill, Times Higher Education Supplement, review of the first edition of Renewable Energy.
"It is high time that good textbooks on the subject become available on the market. Renewable Energy: Power for a Sustainable Future, is thus a timely and welcome addition to the existing literature on the subject [...] Godfrey Boyle and his team of authors have, in my view, managed to produce an outstanding textbook in which a wealth of information, including an extensive amount of data, is presented in a lucid and comprehensible form."
- The Journal of Energy Literature, March 1997
"It is readily accessible to readers with a wide range of interests and abilities because the complex scientific explanations are presented separately from the main text [...] the authors have presented the questions that must be considered. The book contains a wealth of information and is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in renewable energy technologies and their possible role in our future."
- Nicola Pearsall, Chemistry & Industry, October 1996
" [...] an excellent and timely primer [...] the book strikes an admirable balance between making the principles underlying the renewables as understandable as possible and endeavouring not to oversimplify important technological and economic aspects."
- Resurgence, April 1997
"This book has been produced by a large, expert course team who have carefully researched the area and presented much up to date information. The book is very user-friendly, having many valuable figures, tables and boxes. There are plentiful suggestions for further reading, and students are guided towards key papers in a range of journals."
- Paul Phillips, Education in Chemistry, May 1997
"This is an excellent text, covering all the actual and potential sources of renewable energy. The writing is clear and the many excellent diagrams and illustrations complement the written word. Where the treatment is necessarily theoretical the level is appropriate and the argument laid out in separate text. This book will be highly relevant to any undergraduate studying this important field."
- Aslib Book Guide, vol. 61, no. 10, October 1996
