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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
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Searching... | 30000010178568 | TJ163.2 E4645 2007 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
As the Earth's oil supply runs out, and the effects of climate change threaten nations and their populations, the search for carbon-neutral sources of energy becomes more important and increasingly urgent. This book focuses on solutions to the energy problem, and not just the problem itself. It describes the major energy-generation technologies currently under development, and provides an authoritative summary of the current status of each one. It stresses the need for a balanced portfolio of alternative energy technologies. Certain solutions will be more appropriate than others in particular locations, due to the differences in availability of natural resources such as solar, wind, wave, tidal and geothermal. In addition, nuclear options (both fission and fusion), as well as technologies such as fuel cells, photovoltaics, artificial photosynthesis and hydrogen (as an energy carrier), all have a potential role to play. A state-of-the-art critique of energy efficiency in building design is also included. Each chapter is written by an acknowledged international expert and provides a non-technical overview of the competing and complementary approaches to energy generation. Broad in scope and comprehensive in treatment, Energy..beyond Oil provides an authoritative synthesis of the scientific and technological issues which are essential to the survival of the human race in the near future. The book will be of interest and use to graduate students and researchers in all areas of energy studies, and will also be highly useful for policy-makers and professionals in the environmental sector as well as a more general readership who wish to learn more about this extremely topical subject.
Author Notes
Fraser Armstrong is Professor of Chemistry at Oxford University and a fellow of St John's College
Katherine Blundell is a Royal Society University Research Fellow, Reader in Physics at Oxford University and a Fellow of St. John's College
Table of Contents
1 Energy ... beyond oil: a global perspective | p. 1 |
The problems to be solved | p. 1 |
What are the actual needs? | p. 2 |
What are the true costs of the different energy solutions in terms of human fatalities? | p. 3 |
Energy from the Sun | p. 5 |
The nature of the solutions | p. 6 |
The way forward | p. 7 |
2 Arresting carbon dioxide emissions: why and how? | p. 9 |
Introduction | p. 9 |
Principles | p. 10 |
How climate change will affect our lives | p. 22 |
Taking action | p. 25 |
Technological and policy innovation | p. 28 |
Summary and conclusions | p. 31 |
Postscript | p. 32 |
Resources and further information | p. 33 |
Some further UK focused reading and sources | p. 34 |
3 Geothermal energy | p. 35 |
Introduction | p. 35 |
High-temperature resources | p. 38 |
Hot dry rock or enhanced geothermal systems | p. 39 |
Medium-temperature resources | p. 41 |
Geothermal energy as a sideline of oil and gas industries | p. 43 |
Low-temperature systems with heat pumps | p. 43 |
Potential for future growth | p. 45 |
Conclusions | p. 46 |
Acknowledgements | p. 46 |
Resources and further information | p. 46 |
Web Resources | p. 48 |
4 Wave and tidal power | p. 49 |
Introduction | p. 50 |
Wave energy resources | p. 50 |
Comparing wave energy converters-'Wave Hub' | p. 55 |
Tidal energy resources | p. 56 |
Tidal barrage schemes | p. 57 |
Tidal current turbines | p. 59 |
Ranking of marine renewable energy technologies | p. 64 |
Assessment of wave and tidal current resources (UK) | p. 64 |
Summary and conclusions | p. 67 |
Resources and further information | p. 69 |
5 Wind energy | p. 71 |
Introduction | p. 71 |
Wind energy resource | p. 72 |
Public acceptance | p. 77 |
Technical development | p. 78 |
Concluding remarks | p. 82 |
Acknowledgement | p. 83 |
Further Reading | p. 83 |
6 Nuclear fission | p. 84 |
Introduction | p. 84 |
The physics of fission | p. 84 |
Cutting carbon emissions | p. 87 |
Economics | p. 88 |
Reliability of electricity supplies | p. 90 |
Potential new reactor technology | p. 93 |
Investor considerations-regulation | p. 97 |
Investor considerations-delivery and operational performance | p. 97 |
Investor considerations-waste | p. 99 |
Investor considerations-the electricity market | p. 101 |
Public attitudes | p. 101 |
The longer term future | p. 102 |
7 Fusion energy | p. 105 |
Introduction | p. 105 |
Principles of fusion | p. 106 |
Attributes of fusion | p. 108 |
The current status of fusion research | p. 109 |
The next steps-ITER and IFMIF | p. 113 |
Fast track studies | p. 117 |
Conclusions | p. 118 |
Acknowledgement | p. 119 |
Resources and further information | p. 119 |
8 Photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical conversion of solar energy | p. 120 |
Introduction | p. 120 |
Principles | p. 120 |
Conversion efficiencies | p. 122 |
Cost and supplies of raw materials | p. 124 |
How PV cells are developing | p. 125 |
Summary | p. 133 |
Acknowledgements | p. 134 |
Resources and further information | p. 134 |
9 Biological solar energy | p. 137 |
Introduction | p. 137 |
Principles of photosynthesis | p. 138 |
Biomass | p. 141 |
The photosynthetic water splitting apparatus | p. 143 |
Artificial photosynthesis: a new technology | p. 149 |
Policies and implementation | p. 150 |
Acknowledgements | p. 153 |
Resources and further information | p. 153 |
10 Sustainable hydrogen energy | p. 156 |
Introduction | p. 156 |
Hydrogen and electricity: energy carriers | p. 157 |
Hydrogen production | p. 160 |
Hydrogen storage | p. 162 |
A sustainable energy future | p. 165 |
Conclusions | p. 166 |
Resources and further information | p. 166 |
11 Fuel cells | p. 169 |
Introduction | p. 169 |
The principles | p. 170 |
Applications of fuel cells | p. 171 |
Market developments and regulation | p. 172 |
Technological developments | p. 174 |
From today to tomorrow: changing the game | p. 176 |
Concluding remarks | p. 179 |
Resources and further information | p. 179 |
12 Energy efficiency in the design of buildings | p. 181 |
Introduction | p. 181 |
Low-energy buildings | p. 183 |
The new directive on the energy performance of buildings | p. 192 |
The future of building and living | p. 194 |
Summary and conclusions | p. 194 |
References | p. 195 |
13 Governing the transition to a new energy economy | p. 197 |
Energy politics | p. 199 |
Sustainable energy policy | p. 200 |
Socio-technological transitions | p. 202 |
Critical policy considerations | p. 205 |
Transforming energy/environmental governance | p. 209 |
References | p. 211 |
14 Summary | p. 215 |
Index | p. 221 |