Téléchargez l'application Kindle gratuite et commencez à lire des livres Kindle instantanément sur votre smartphone, tablette ou ordinateur - aucun appareil Kindle n'est requis.
Lisez instantanément sur votre navigateur avec Kindle pour le Web.
Utilisation de l'appareil photo de votre téléphone portable - scannez le code ci-dessous et téléchargez l'application Kindle.
Image indisponible
couleur :
-
-
-
- Pour voir cette vidéo, téléchargez Flash Player
Future Energy: Improved, Sustainable and Clean Options for Our Planet Relié – 4 août 2008
Il y a une édition plus récente de cet article:
133,96 €
(1)
Habituellement expédié sous 5 à 6 jours
- Each type of available energy is put into perspective and all realistic, future options are examined in detail
- Presents theory and background, detailing the magnitude of energy involved
- Written by top scientists AND engineers in the various fields
- ISBN-100080548083
- ISBN-13978-0080548081
- ÉditeurElsevier Science Ltd
- Date de publication4 août 2008
- LangueAnglais
- Dimensions16.51 x 2.54 x 24.13 cm
- Nombre de pages de l'édition imprimée400 pages
Description du produit
Biographie de l'auteur
Détails sur le produit
- Éditeur : Elsevier Science Ltd (4 août 2008)
- Langue : Anglais
- Relié : 400 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0080548083
- ISBN-13 : 978-0080548081
- Poids de l'article : 960 g
- Dimensions : 16.51 x 2.54 x 24.13 cm
- Commentaires client :
Commentaires client
Les avis clients, y compris le nombre d’étoiles du produit, aident les clients à en savoir plus sur le produit et à décider s'il leur convient.
Pour calculer le nombre global d’étoiles et la ventilation en pourcentage par étoile, nous n'utilisons pas une simple moyenne. Au lieu de cela, notre système prend en compte des éléments tels que la date récente d'un commentaire et si l'auteur de l'avis a acheté l'article sur Amazon. Les avis sont également analysés pour vérifier leur fiabilité.
En savoir plus sur le fonctionnement des avis clients sur AmazonMeilleurs commentaires provenant d’autres pays
Let me mention the positives first. Although the book is divided into four parts (see Table of Contents in Product Information), the chapters I like best are those pertaining to Renewable Energy Resources (Part Two). In my opinion, all of those chapters are written well: They describe a resource's characteristics, progress made and challenges remaining in harnessing the resource in cost-effective ways.
And now for the negatives:
Even though the chapters are each authored by experts in their fields, differences in the authors' communication styles or writing skills impact how much value you're able to get from each chapter. Take, for example, the authors of Chapters One and Two. At one point, both tried to imply the same thing about demand and supply estimates for various fossil fuels: that sometime in the future, demand will outstrip supply. But whereas Chapter One's author was content to just give out raw numbers (culled from various reports), leaving curious readers to do their own calculations to infer just how many more years do we have before we could run out of oil, gas, and coal, Chapter Two's author was more direct in his approach, stating that according to his source of information (properly cited of course) those numbers could possibly be 40, 65, and 155, respectively. Whose communication or writing style would you find more helpful? Myself, I would find Chapter Two's author's style more helpful. Authors, don't make your readers do unnecessary work!!
Some chapters were just too long for my taste. Take Chapter Three, for example, which is 17 pages long but could probably be whittled down to three pages, excluding references. The title is Nuclear Power (Fission). But is it about how nuclear fission works? Nope. The authors did say at the beginning that their goal for Chapter Three is to answer the question whether nuclear power should be included as an option for meeting energy policy objectives. Their conclusion after summarizing several studies? "... the estimated economics of nuclear power depend critically on assumptions made about future gas and carbon prices, and nuclear costs." (page 46) But I knew this already!
I should mention that a few of the books' chapters contain discussions that require chemistry knowledge. If you're not interested in those details, or just want a book that has better writing, is easier to read (because it is less technical), and covers almost the same topic, you might consider Robert Evans' Fueling Our Future.
Who is the targeted audience is my main issue with "Future Energy". The book has strong similarities to a collection of proceedings from a conference. You know the type where they invite a series of speakers on a variety of topics with each having a certain expertise. At the end-of-the-day you came away informed, but unlikely to have many of your specific questions answered. I will say that roughly half the chapters are overviews and designed to help you gain insight on the technology. These chapters are clearly the most helpful. Another point - since this is a compilation you quickly realize that not all of the authors are as skilled as others. While some are effective in conveying their ideas others struggle and become too academic.
Chapter Topics
Oil & Gas (very technical)
Clean Coal
Nuclear Fission ( a business case)
Oil Sands (A very good overview)
Methane and Coal to liquids
Wind Energy
Tidal Energy (Which I thought was well written)
Wave Energy
Biomass ( a nice overview)
Solar Power
Hydroelectric Power
Geothermal ( an overview)
Photovoltaics
Pebble Bed Modular Reactor
Fuel Cells
Methane Hydrants
Nuclear Fussion
Carbon Capture
Smart Energy Houses
Energy Transport in 2050
Final Verdict - A worthwhile reference guide if you are looking for eclectic pieces of information. This does not make useless but it does mean that it is not authoritative on any one topic.
4 Stars
Make no mistake; this is more of a textbook or reference than a general-purpose compendium on green energy for everyone. That said, Future Energy is less technical than another Letcher-edited tome, Climate Change: Observed impacts on Planet Earth , though only by degrees. It's still full of citations, equations, and data-dense charts and graphs. This does make Future Energy a great first place to turn when researching energy questions; the rich citations and references will lead you off to as dense and academic (and thus well-researched) answers as you desire.
Though each chapter is written by a different (but always well-credentialled) researcher or researchers, typically they examine the current state-of-the-art for each clean energy technology, as well as such factors as the comparable cost of energy from said technology and feasible future improvements.
The only caveats I picked up on in reading the text involve the treatment of the potential downsides of the clean energy technologies themselves; for example, in discussing the environmental impacts of wind power, only a couple of sentences treat upon the danger to bird populations (which consist not only of dangers to migrating birds, but also to local populations of birds like the sage grouse, who are scared away from breeding grounds by the tall turbines themselves). Likewise, the hydroelectricity chapter does address some of the environmental impacts, but the treatment is (no pun intended) rather shallow: though acknolwedging reservoirs (and the lake-like environment they make up) are different than the riverine habitat they replace, the impacts to wildlife isn't addressed in detail, and the loss of land due to flooding is focused more on impact to displaced people than to lost habitats.
Still, I am glad to have this text on my bookshelves; it's going to be a fantastic resource and first point in research when I write on the various energy technologies of the future.
Each chapter highlights basic theory, problems and solutions, and costs of a particular energy source. The chapter topics include oil & gas fossil fuels, coal, nuclear, oil sands, methane production, renewable energy, tidal & wave energy, biomass, concentrated solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, photovoltaics, methane hydrates, fuel cells, and nuclear fusion (whew!).
The array of facts that this book presents, is just so amazing: did you know that the latest, huge wind turbines, can in fact affect cell phone reception, and that the blades themselves cast such long, late day shadows, that they can be very annoying to people living even some distance away from the turbine farms?
In each chapter, there is a consistent presentation of the energy source that is being discussed, along with costs, comparison summaries, efficiency ratios, and the advantages and disadvantages of the particular energy option. My only criticism is that there could have been more discussion of the "energy-in versus energy-out (in BTUs) numbers.
The chapter on "The Future of Clean Coal" is particularly important, and is itself worth the price of the book, simply because so much of the world's future energy supplies (particularly for the developing countries, all of which are growing the fastest) are going to come from coal. This chapter includes data on CO2 capture ratios, net efficiency numbers (for pre and post-capture techniques), etc., for various coal production approaches.
One of the more astounding charts is a color graph in the middle of the book, that shows current and future atmospheric CO2 concentrations, by "policy", over the next 200 years.
One line of the graph shows future likely carbon concentrations under Al Gore's proposed policy (his and the "stern" policy show by far the lowest, and most dramatically declining concentrations in the future), which would create a less than 2 degrees (Celsius)increase in warming, which of course is good news.
This graph also includes what would happen if Kyoto is in effect all those years, WITH the U.S. in the treaty agreement, and sadly enough, NOT MUCH would happen. The resultant warming under Kyoto, with or without U.S. participation, would be very similar to that of the "baseline" option, both of which would result in huge increases in CO2 levels.
I highly recommend that all policy makers, concerned citizens, politicians, teachers, environmentalists, industry leaders, newspaper editors and other journalists, get a copy of this book, read it, and keep it on their energy library shelves.
One final compliment to the book's editor, Trevor Letcher: the phone and fax numbers and email addresses of each contributor, are clearly listed, at the end of the book.
-I. Fossil Fuel and Nuclear Energy
1. The Future of Oil and Gas Fossil Fuels (A.R.H. Goodwin)
2. The Future of Clean Coal (M. Balat)
3. Nuclear Power (Fission) (S. Green, D. Kennedy)
4. The Alberta Oil Sands: Reserves and Supply Outlook (F. Rahnama, K. Elliott, R.A. Marsh, L. Philp)
5. The Future of Methane and Coal to Petrol and Diesel Technologies (A.C. Vosloo)
-II. Renewable Energy
6. Wind Energy (L. Staudt)
7. Tidal Current Energy: Origins and Challenges (A. Owen)
8. Wave Energy (R. Alcorn, T. Lewis)
9. Biomass (P. Champagne)
10. Concentrating Solar Power (R. Pitz-Paal)
11. Hydroelectric Power (M. Balmer, D. Spreng)
12. Geothermal Energy (J.L. Renner)
13. Solar Energy: Photovoltaics (D. Infield)
-III. Potentially Important New Types of Energy
14. The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (D. Matzner)
15. Fuel Cells and Batteries (J. Salminen, D. Steingart, T. Kallio)
16. Methane Hydrates (E. Allison)
17. Nuclear Fusion (L.R. Grisham)
-IV. New Aspects to Future Energy
18. Carbon Capture and Storage for Greenhouse Effect Mitigation (D. Tondeur, F. Teng)
19. Smart Energy Houses of the Future - Self-supporting in Energy and Zero Emission (R.D. Wing)
20. The Prospects for Electricity and Transport Fuels to 2050 (A.G. Dutton, M. Page)
Each chapter covers:
-summary in lay-person's language
-technical requirements
-economics
-feasibility
-magnitude of expected outputs
-possibilities for world-wide implementation
-effective contribution to sustainable and clean energy
Hard data, charts, diagrams, and b/w photos support the information given.
The bottom line? "The resulting world views will influence the type of technology change and the extent and direction of government intervention in terms of R&D expenditure, market operation and encouraging behavior change. ...In the short and medium term, policy is likely to emphasize improving efficiency in the use of conventional fuels; in the longer term, significant emissions reductions are only likely to be achieved through shifts in underlying technology, towards renewables and perhaps nuclear in the electricity sector, and towards hydrogen and fuel cells in the transport sector" (p. 369).
This is a quality hardback volume that should be in every reference collection for fact-finders, used in every class examining existing and future energy options, and should definitely be a resource owned and referred to by legislative research staff at all levels of government. A MUST-HAVE at this time in our history.