Sustainable Energy: Choosing Among Options (Hardcover)

by Jefferson W. Tester (Author), Elisabeth M. Drake (Author), Michael J. Driscoll (Author), Michael W. Golay (Author), William A. Peters (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Sustainable Energy provides the intellectual tools and perspectives needed to devise a sound strategy for ensuring sustainability."
—Jack Gibbons, former Presidential Science Advisor and former Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy

"At last, sustainable energy can be taught from a single textbook—one that is balanced, worldly, comprehensive, and challenging. Watch out, teachers! Science and engineering students are going to demand courses that use this book."
—Robert Socolow, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University

"For some time I have searched for a comprehensive text on sustainable energy, and I have found it here. This book by Jefferson Tester and his colleagues will be the field's benchmark in the future. It is wonderfully broad in scope, yet detailed in its presentation of the material."
—Fred K. Browand, Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern California

"Of all the factors that bear on our vision of sustainable living on this earth, none dominates the scene more than the energy we use. Fuels, conservation, economics, new technologies—all this and more is covered in this excellent textbook. It is essential reading for those of us who care about this vitally important topic, and who consider the pursuit of sustainability our responsibility, not someone else's."
—Admiral Richard Truly, former Director, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

"This book illustrates the directions for the future of sustainable energy in a clear and understandable way. It explains the elements of sustainability, its most important technologies, and the economics needed to choose between competing options. It is not only readable but undogmatic, leaving readers to draw their own conclusions about this important topic."
—Meinrad K. Eberle, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, and former Director of the Paul Scherrer Institute

Product Description
Human survival depends on a continuing energy supply, but the need for ever-increasing amounts of energy poses a dilemma: How can we provide the benefits of energy to the population of the globe without damaging the environment, negatively affecting social stability, or threatening the well-being of future generations? The solution will lie in finding sustainable energy sources and more efficient means of converting and utilizing energy. This textbook is designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as others who have an interest in exploring energy resource options and technologies with a view toward achieving sustainability. It clearly presents the trade-offs and uncertainties inherent in evaluating and choosing different energy options and provides a framework for assessing policy solutions.

Sustainable Energy includes illustrative examples, problems, references for further reading, and links to relevant Web sites. Outside the classroom, the book is a resource for government, industry, and nonprofit organizations. The first six chapters provide the tools for making informed energy choices. They examine the broader aspects of energy use, including resource estimation, environmental effects, and economic evaluations. Chapters 7-15 review the main energy sources of today and tomorrow, including fossil fuels, nuclear power, biomass, geothermal energy, hydropower, wind energy, and solar energy, examining their technologies, environmental impacts, and economics. The remaining chapters treat energy storage, transmission, and distribution; the electric power sector; transportation; industrial energy usage; commercial and residential buildings; and synergistic complex systems. Sustainable Energy addresses the challenges of integrating diverse factors and the importance for future generations of the energy choices we make today.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 870 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (July 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262201534
• ISBN-13: 978-0262201537
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #347,692 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written but somewhat dated, October 5, 2008

By	Jesse Rorabaugh "glmory" (Ithaca NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This was a well written text book that gives an introduction to a great number of important fields. It does a particularly good job giving a fair treatment to some options that are often overlooked in books on sustainable energy such as geothermal and nuclear energy. It also gives a good background in the economics of electricity and liquid fuels.

It is however already quite dated. The book was published right before the price of oil started to soar, and completely didn't see it coming. Many statements support the idea that oil will be cheap for many decades to come. They certainly were not alone in not seeing this coming, but it is sometimes hard to take them seriously on other subjects when they keep referring back to the low price of oil.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Read, January 6, 2009

By	Brad Williams - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A great book if you are interested in sustainable energy technologies and the ways the affect our world.

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars pretty useless book, June 30, 2008

By	Elizabeth (RI) - See all my reviews

Unfortunately, I bought this book for a class before realizing that I could have managed just as well by getting all the information that I needed from the internet and saving myself $70. The book lacks depth and could have been better organized. Having already some knowledge about sustainability and energy issues, I found that I could more efficiently answer any questions I had about sustainable energy issues by searching online. There is so much information online and much of it comes from reputable sources, such as the Energy Information Administration.