Renewable Energy: Power for a Sustainable FutureGodfrey Boyle Overview: The provision of sustainable energy supplies for an expanding and increasingly productive world is one of the major issues facing civilization today. Renewable Energy 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. |
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annual approximately biofuels biogas biomass blade building capacity capital cost coal collector combustion conventional Department of Energy discount rate economic effect efficiency electricity electrons energy systems Energy Technology engines environmental estimated estuary ethanol ETSU factors Figure flow fossil fuel geothermal grid HMSO hydro hydroelectric increase industry installed kWh-¹ landfill metres million monocrystalline nuclear operation output p-n junction passive solar Pelton wheel photovoltaic potential power plant power stations produced pump PV arrays PV cells PV modules PV power PV systems reduced relatively renewable energy renewable energy sources reservoir resource rotation rotor scheme Section Severn Barrage small-scale solar cell solar energy solar heating solar radiation steam storage supply surface temperature thermal tidal power tides tonnes velocity wastes wave energy wind energy wind farm wind speed wind turbine