An acclaimed author and celebrated journalist breaks down the history of electricity and the impact of global energy use on the world and the environment.​

Global demand for power is doubling every two decades, but electricity remains one of the most difficult forms of energy to supply and do so reliably. Today, some three billion people live in places where per-capita electricity use is less than what's used by an average American refrigerator. How we close the colossal gap between the electricity rich and the electricity poor will determine our success in addressing issues like women's rights, inequality, and climate change.

In A Question of Power, veteran journalist Robert Bryce tells the human story of electricity, the world's most important form of energy. Through onsite reporting from India, Iceland, Lebanon, Puerto Rico, New York, and Colorado, he shows how our cities, our money--our very lives--depend on reliable flows of electricity. He highlights the factors needed for successful electrification and explains why so many people are still stuck in the dark.

With vivid writing and incisive analysis, he powerfully debunks the notion that our energy needs can be met solely with renewables and demonstrates why--if we are serious about addressing climate change--nuclear energy must play a much bigger role.

Electricity has fueled a new epoch in the history of civilization. A Question of Power explains how that happened and what it means for our future.

Renewable energy is crucial to preserve the environment. This energy involves various systems that should be optimized and assessed to provide better performance. The goal of this book is to present the latest research works on nature-inspired computing approaches applied to the design and development of renewable energy systems. The design and development of renewable energy systems remain a challenge. This book focuses on nature-inspired computing approaches which are the most prevailing solutions. Therefore, the book provides new solutions to the renewable energy domain. It is an essential research book for researchers, students, engineers, and individuals working in the renewable energy industry.

The book provides an integrated energy/exergy analysis method to identify the energy utilization issues and systematically propose the cost-effective energy-saving and CO2 mitigation/capture solution. There is a strong market needs on energy-saving and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction. CO2 mitigation/capture will achieve economic benefit of fuel, power, and carbon tax saving as well as environmental GHG reduction. The book is a professional book for energy-saving and GHG gas mitigation technology in oil & gas, oil refining, and chemical industry. It is an integrated technical book that combines energy utilization theory and practical method, including: thermodynamic analysis for unit operation and process units; energy and exergy calculation for various process streams and utilities; three-link energy/exergy analysis model; energy/exergy balance of equipment, process units, and entire plant; approach and technology of energy saving; optimization of pipeline and equipment; pinch energy-saving technology and its application; CO2 capture and utilization with 8 case studies incorporated for all different scenarios; key energy-saving technologies such gas turbine, FCCU regeneration CO combustion and energy recovery, flue gas turbine system optimization, low-grade heat recovery and utilization. The book is intended for engineers and professional personnel who are working in process engineering, EPC companies, chemical and petrochemical plants, refineries, oil & gas production facilities, power generation plant. It can also be a professional reference or textbook for undergraduate or graduate-level university students and teaching personnel of chemical, energy, and process engineering faculties of universities.

The Economics of Electricity Markets provides a cutting-edge analysis of the critical issues involved in the design and operation of electricity markets, as well as an assessment of alternative institutional arrangements that have either been implemented or are under discussion in Europe and the US.The book illustrates how a sound market design can render electricity trading and retailing very much like that of other commodities. Social and political concerns, rather than engineering or economics, are what make electricity markets 'special'. The expert contributors address a wide set of issues that arise when competition is introduced to the electricity industry, ranging from the design of spot and real-time power markets to alternative approaches to congestion management, from competition policy in wholesale electricity markets to the benefits and costs of retail competition, and from regulatory measures to ensure generation capacity adequacy to the politicization of generation investment decisions as a way of pursuing sustainability targets. This highly informative book will appeal to academics, students and researchers in the field of advanced energy economics, and will prove essential reading for energy regulators, professionals and executives wishing to explore the theoretical foundations underpinning their day-to-day activities. Contributors: G. Cervigni, A. Commisso, A. Creti, D. Perekhodtsev, C. Poletti, P. Ranci

As the ice around the Arctic landmass recedes, the territory is becoming a flashpoint in world affairs. New trade routes, cutting thousands of miles off journeys, are available, and the Arctic is thought to be home to enormous gas and oil reserves. The territorial lines are new and hazy. This book looks at how Russia deals with the outside world vis a vis the Arctic. Given Russia's recent bold foreign policy interventions, these are crucial issues and the realpolitik practiced by the Russian state is essential for understanding the Arctic's future.Here, Geir Honneland brings together decades of cutting-edge research - investigating the political contexts and international tensions surrounding Russia's actions. Honneland looks specifically at 'region-building' and environmental politics of fishing and climate change, on nuclear safety and nature preservation, and also analyses the diplomatic relations surrounding clashes with Norway and Canada, as well as at the governance of the Barents Sea. The Politics of the Arctic is a crucial addition to our understanding of contemporary International Relations concerning the Polar North.

The European Union's renewable energy policy is one of the most ambitious attempts to facilitate a transition towards more sustainable energy systems. This book provides a comprehensive guide to the policy and its implementation. It contains key case studies for understanding how member states have shaped the policy, how the EU has affected the policies of its member states and how renewable energy policies have diffused horizontally. An analysis of its external dimension is also included. This remarkable guide is the first comprehensive attempt to shed light on the complex dynamics of renewable energy promotion in the European multilevel system. Theoretically driven, the study employs Europeanization as an analytical framework for assessing policy change, both at the EU level and in the member states, and compares the development of renewable energy policies in the electricity and transport sectors from the 1980s to the present. Comprising contributions from leading scholars, the book is an indispensible guide for academics, researchers and students interested in EU energy and climate policies in general and EU renewable energy policy specifically, as well as practitioners and stakeholders involved in renewable energy policy and climate protection. Contributors include: A. Ancygier, M. Bechberger, P. Bocquillon, S. Davidescu, L. Di Lucia, M.R. Di Nucci, H. Dyrhauge, G. Escribano, A. Evrard, J. Fairbrass, R. Fernandez, B. Hirschl, R. Hiteva, T. Hoppe, K. Jankowska, H. Joergens, T. Maltby, D. Ohlhorst, E. OEller, D. Russolillo, I. Solorio, E. van Bueren, T. Vogelpohl

The burning of fossil fuels and emission of greenhouse gasses critically impacts the global environment. By utilizing better techniques and process, businesses can aid in the journey to an economic, sustainable, and environmentally-friendly future for generations to come. Business Models for Renewable Energy Initiatives: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an essential reference source for the latest scholarly perspectives on present and future business models in the renewable energy sector. Featuring coverage on a range of perspectives and topics such as techno-economics, decentralized power systems, and risk assessment, this book is designed for academicians, students, and researchers seeking current scholarly research on green business opportunities for renewable energy.

Offering a unique and critical perspective on energy justice, this Handbook delves into an emerging field of inquiry encapsulating multiple strands of scholarship on energy systems. Covering key topics including generation, transmission, distribution and demand, it explores fundamental questions surrounding policy, climate change, security and social movements. The Handbook illuminates the rapidly expanding and diversifying scholarly domains where energy justice has developed to date. Chapters provide an overview on energy justice issues across a range of socio-technical and political contexts, including differences along lines of race, gender, age, geography, housing, socio-economic status and infrastructure. The Handbook further incorporates non-Western perspectives to expand the transitional vocabulary and frameworks of energy justice. Grounded in empirically rich case studies from across the world to support nuanced framings, situated methods and informed policy, this Handbook will be of interest to students of development, human geography, environmental policy and politics. It will also be useful to practitioners working in international organisations and agencies working in development and the environment.

It is imperative to promote and maintain sustainability in all areas of the world. By developing effective energy usage frameworks, regional communities can better achieve this goal. Sustainable Local Energy Planning and Decision Making: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an authoritative reference source featuring the latest scholarly research on an operational framework for decision support for local and regional authorities to aid in sustainable energy planning. Including extensive coverage on a broad range of topics and perspectives such as emission trends, energy balance, and climate change, this book is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on the development of regional sustainable energy plans.

Martin Chick's book is a major economic and historical study of the development of electricity and energy policy in Britain, France and the United States since 1945. Using newly available archival material the author draws important comparisons between these countries and includes all of the fuel and power industries. Among the issues covered within this book are: nationalisation and privatisation; regulation, deregulation and liberalisation; marginal cost pricing; investment appraisal; the OPEC oil price hikes of the 1970s; the European Coal and Steel Community; domestic and international threats to national energy security; the electricity blackouts in California; the efforts of the European Commission to promote competition in national and transnational electricity markets; and the influence of history on current discussions of energy policy. The book blends economic theory with historical evidence and is as interested in the political factors affecting the implementation of theory as in the theory itself. It will be of interest to all students and scholars of environmental studies, politics, economics, business and industrial history, as well as to anyone interested in placing the current debates on electricity and energy policy in their historical perspective

The 1970s were a decade of historic American energy crises - major interruptions in oil supplies from the Middle East, the country's most dangerous nuclear accident, and chronic shortages of natural gas. In Energy Crises, Jay Hakes brings his expertise in energy and presidential history to bear on the questions of why these crises occurred, how different choices might have prevented or ameliorated them, and what they have meant for the half-century since - and likely the half-century ahead. Hakes deftly intertwines the domestic and international aspects of the long-misunderstood fuel shortages that still affect our lives today. This approach, drawing on previously unavailable and inaccessible records, affords an insider's view of decision-making by three U.S. presidents, the influence of their sometimes-combative aides, and their often tortuous relations with the rulers of Iran and Saudi Arabia. Hakes skillfully dissects inept federal attempts to regulate oil prices and allocation, but also identifies the decade's more positive legacies - from the nation's first massive commitment to the development of alternative energy sources other than nuclear power, to the initial movement toward a less polluting, more efficient energy economy. The 1970s brought about a tectonic shift in the world of energy. Tracing these consequences to their origins in policy and practice, Hakes makes their lessons available at a critical moment - as the nation faces the challenge of climate change resulting from the burning of fossil fuels.

Is the earth's oil supply starting to run out, or is there far more oil than some experts believe? This book points out flaws in the research used to warn of an oil shortfall and predicts that large new reserves of oil are soon to be tapped. In the last decade, oil experts, geologists, and policy makers alike have warned that a peak in oil production around the world was about to be reached and that global economic distress would result when this occurred. But it didn't happen. The "Peak Oil" Scare and the Coming Oil Flood refutes the recent claims that world oil production is nearing a peak and threatening economic disaster by analyzing the methods used by the theory's proponents. Author Michael C. Lynch, former researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), debunks the "Peak Oil" crisis prediction and describes how the next few years will instead see large amounts of new supply that will bring oil prices down and boost the global economy. This book will be invaluable to those involved in the energy industry, including among those fields that are competing with oil, as well as financial institutions for which the price of oil is of critical importance. Lynch uncovers the facts behind the misleading news stories and media coverage on oil production as well as the analytic process that reveals the truth about the global oil supply. General readers will be dismayed to learn how governments have frequently been led astray by seeming logical theories that prove to have no sound basis and will come away with a healthy sense of skepticism about popular economics.

This book is devoted to investigating the policy design and effectiveness of financial and market-based instruments to promote energy efficiency financing. The concept of this monograph is to present the latest results related to energy efficiency funding schemes, energy efficiency obligations, voluntary agreements, auction mechanisms, and Super Energy Services Companies (Super ESCOs) in major jurisdictions across the world. The book focuses on financial and market-based instruments as they deliver a price signal, which provides an incentive for firms to invest in innovation or implement more energy-efficient technologies and deliver energy savings while minimizing costs. Such instruments can have significant advantages for the government, supporting the fiscal sustainability of the government's energy efficiency efforts, requiring less enforcement than regulation and according the market flexibility to select the most cost-efficient technologies. This book is highly recommended to researchers, policy experts, and business specialists who seek an in-depth and up-to-date integrated overview of energy efficiency financing.