Customer Reviews

Energy Systems Engineering: Evaluation and Implementation

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During my time as an undergrad at Cornell University, one of my favorite classes has been a renewable energy course taught by one of the authors, Lou Albright, with Energy Systems Engineering as the primary textbook. Apart from being clear, well-written, and well-organized, the book does a great job of blending background information, justification for technologies, discussion of practical issues, and quantitative analysis of systems in a manageable and engaging way. Working through it was very empowering and it played a big role in getting me excited about energy. It's also very accessible as a reference for specific projects. I would highly recommend it to other students interested in learning how to work with and analyze energy systems.

I teach a 2nd year course in civil engineering at the University of Waterloo entitled Engineering and Sustainable Development. One module involves sustainable energy systems. I use this book as the reference for this section of the course. The presentation of stationary energy sources and the workings of fossil fuel plants is at precisely the correct level of explanation for undergraduate students with sufficient references provided to allow grad students (or keen undergraduates) to find out more information.

What I find best about the text is the presentation of the material from a systems analysis perspective. Understanding the goals of design is as, if not more important than how to do the design.

The text really is superb with regard to the modern sustainability concept of "triple bottom line." Each section delivers not only the technology but also a means to financially or economically evaluate the costs and benefits of such a technology.

Overall, this is a brilliant book on energy which has vast applications in university teaching.

As president of the American Society of Alternative Energy Engineers (ASAEE), I can fully endorse the lasting analytical power of this amazing text. Many texts like this, including some we're reviewing that have not yet been published, and slated for late 2009, cover policy, politics, global statistical inference, and multiple regressions of trend analysis for global supply and demand, but NONE come close to balancing the macro and micro in such fine fashion as ESE. This is a WORKING text, not just for policy, but for implementation. Don't let the ups and downs of barrel prices, or the emotion of global warming vs. cooling make you think this text is dated. The models are solid, sound, state of the art, and relevant in a timeless way-- changing the parameters will not change the underlying value of the models, contribution, and need for this text. This is a must for any engineer's library, whether doing policy work, design, or rubber hits the road project or community engineering. Applying an energy metaphor to the text, it's high wattage for low investment, a perpetuity rather than an annuity, green and permanent with frequent use, as well as a cherished place on your shelves, and renewable with the powerful updates, blogs and helpful additions this very ethical author keeps providing-- the gift keeps on giving. Conserve your funds, time and brain power by getting this today-- it will save you muddling through five other texts costing $200 each which only have a piece of the whole picture you'll find herein. The trees didn't give their lives in vain for this one! --Dr. Tom Halstead

We have been using Vanek and Albright's text at Virginia Tech for several semesters for a junior/senior level course entitled 'Sustainable Energy Solutions for a Global Society.' Overall, we find the book to be carefully written, providing good breadth as well as depth on some of the major conventional and sustainable energy systems. The students enrolling in our course come from a variety of engineering disciplines and have a range of backgrounds, but the text seems suited to the mix. The examples are helpful for students, and the excercises at the ends of the chapters provide a range of problems for homework assignments, ranging from conceptual to analytical to numerical. Teaching materials available electronically from the publisher include solution spreadsheets and PowerPoint slides of many (but not all) of the figures and tables in the text, facilitating lecture preparation. There are a number of texts available now in the sustainable energy field, but overall, this text provides a good balance of topics relevant to the course we teach.

This book does an excellent job of bridging the gap between dry engineering texts and touchy-feely guides for novices.

The authors treat each topic area with a crisply written and comprehensive walk through that includes history, current state of development, key concepts and important areas of controversy and ongoing development.

These are followed up with well-designed exercises that teach the reader the formulas and equations required to design and evaluate these systems.

As a layman with a good general knowledge of energy systems and their inherent strengths and challenges, I found this book to a nice step up from the treatments I'm used to. The orderly, analytical approach of the trained engineer is compelling, and having the option of proceeding right into the related math a great way to shift my theoretical understanding toward a real working knowledge.

The topic areas covered in this book are critically important for us all to understand, as our race is forced to start implementing some kind of "Plan B" in the era of Peak Oil and Climate Change. This book helps us move from mystique to measurement--a prerequisite if we are to have a hope of getting it right.

Mr. Vaneck and Mr. Albright do an outstanding job quantifying, explaining and making attainable the physical complexities of our current energy situation. Their work is so thorough, it is set to arm those players at the highest levels of impact with the knowledge necessary to implement the various pragmatic solutions at hand regarding our current energy dilemma; in doing so, this may be a tool of immeasurable impact helping to solve one of our civilization's most daunting challenges.

This is a must read for those in my organization, and will remain a reference staple for years to come. A tool I recommend for those looking to move beyond theorizing about energy solutions / focusing on the problem and break ground building our next generation energy infrastructure.

Rob Garrity
Finlo renewable energy, principle
strategic capital solutions / solar deployment

www.FINLOenergy.com

Energy Systems Engineering
by Francis Vanek and Lou Albright
By burning fossil fuels, we may have lit a fire of feedback cycles that threaten to overheat the Earth. For this fire to sputter and go out, we have to stop fanning it. To reduce our contribution to the fire as effectively as possible by minimizing emissions from non-renewable sources, decision-making for energy systems must be optimized both for the near term and the decades during which the impacts of those decisions will be felt.
Energy systems engineers can now exercise their analytical skills more effectively using the focused and practical applied mathematics and modeling tools that are taught in Energy Systems Engineering. The tools are made accessible through detailed examples for transportation technologies as well as key energy sources. This highly readable resource turns the bright light of systems engineering onto the energy landscape, enabling choices for the shortest possible pathway to the sustainable energy future that is critical to the well-being of civilization.