World Scientific Series in Current Energy Issues – serie

Energy efficiency touches all parts of the economy and lies at the heart of all plausible strategies for addressing climate change. A fascinating range of new technologies and new business models have emerged in the past few years and are rapidly reshaping the field and driving efficiency improvements — many of them completely unexpected.This book provides a fresh look at energy efficiency written in a way that can be interesting to experts and serve as an entry point for novices. With chapters written by recognized experts in their fields of expertise, the book provides readers with a clear perspective on the state-of-the art developments of both new technologies and new approaches to system design and operations in buildings, industry, transportation, and urban design. Strategies for electrification and optimization based on data and powerful algorithms are also explored in depth. The discussion includes new mobility systems, smart buildings, reimagined industrial processes, new materials, and smart grid integration.Related Link(s)

This volume focuses on a few renewable energy sources, viz. wind energy plus energy from water movement and natural temperature differences that in principle could provide enormous energy resources. Energy from wind has been a rapidly growing source of energy as wind turbines have grown in size and especially as wind turbines have moved offshore. Hydroelectric dams have continued to be used as energy sources particularly in developing countries. Other energy sources using water, including waves and tidal sources, are also discussed in this volume. Finally, the volume discusses differences between deep and surface ocean temperatures plus the extraction of energy from the earth's extremely large energy resource of magma deep below the surface. These latter two energy resources in particular require further development and the current book describes the latest advances coupled with pointing possible paths forward.

With the continuous migration of people towards metropolitan areas in search of employment, the demands for core services and energy, coupled with an increasing awareness of the impact of climate change, have placed the management and planning of global urban energy under a lot of pressure. Trends toward urban energy service transformations that offer greater affordability, reliability, efficiency and adaptability provide hope for a global sustainable future. At the same time, there are also limits to these transitions, as well as risks involved. For example, on one end of the spectrum, our urban energy future includes land use sprawl, high fossil fuel use, pollution, and unhealthy urban conditions. On the other side of this transition spectrum is more energy choices, and healthier, more livable cities, along with less energy use and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. What the future might hold for transforming the world's cities depends upon an understanding of the risks of current trajectories and the opportunities for and limitations to developing sustainable urban energy systems.This edited volume brings together leading experts on the prospects and challenges of urban energy innovation and on related-economic, social and environmental sustainability transitions. The focus of the volume is on multidisciplinary reviews, research informing technologies and policies for sustainability, and analytical insights addressing rapid urbanization and changes across a diverse typology of global cities. The volume will include an overview of the current state of urban energy systems. It will also document and evaluate urban energy prospects for a sustainable, resilient future.

"Anyone wanting to learn quickly about the latest developments in energy storage should read this book. It provides enough technical depth for the reader to understand the advantages and limitations of the various storage methods, and sufficient references to enable the reader to dig more deeply into the technical details."IEEE Journals & MagazinesThe subject of energy storage is extremely important for the increased utilization of renewable energies such as solar and wind energy in times when their sources (e.g. the sun and wind) are unavailable. The ability to store energy can also level out the demand curve for electricity and thus lead to a decrease in the peak requirements of energy production. A storage system for ground transportation is also important as a potential replacement for fossil fuel powered transportation.Energy Storage offers a comprehensive look at the possible approaches to energy storage, which are relevant to various situations; from smoothing demand in electrical energy production, applications of energy storage, to transportation. The book covers a variety of approaches to the storage of energy. Beginning with a discussion of the critical importance of energy storage, the book discusses various possible storage options including hydro storage, compressed air energy storage, and electrical and chemical storage in batteries, capacitors and fuel cells. There is also a chapter on the mechanical storage of energy with flywheels using advanced materials. The various applications to power production and transportation are also included. The expertise and active involvement of the authors of the various chapters ensures that the information is reliable, current, and forward looking.

This book covers a new frontier of research in Critical Materials that provides insight in terms of the possible sustainable mitigation strategies, the complexity, broadness and multi-disciplinarity of the subject. By exploring in both "systems view" and "in-depth materials view" in light of the circular economy, this book tackles the problem of sustainable usage of materials that is closely intertwined with the energy issue and climate change. Topics covered include: geopolitics of materials, the energy-materials nexus, definitions of the criticality of materials, circular product design, the development of alternative materials (substitution), sustainable mining and recycling.

Nuclear energy is important both as a very large energy resource and as a source of carbon free energy. However incidents such as the Fukashima Daiichi nuclear disaster (2011), the Chernobyl disaster (1986), and the Three Mile Island accident (1979) have cast doubts on the future of nuclear fission as a major player in the future energy mix. This volume provides an excellent overview of the current situation regarding nuclear fission as well as a description of the enormous potential advantages offered by nuclear fusion including an essentially unlimited fuel supply with minimal environmental impact.Energy from the Nucleus focuses on the two main approaches to producing energy from the nucleus: fission and fusion. The chapters on nuclear fission cover the status of current and future generations of reactors as well as new safety requirements and the environmental impact of electricity production from nuclear fission. The chapters on nuclear fusion discuss both inertial confinement fusion and magnetic confinement fusion, including the new international fusion test facility, ITER. The expertise of the authors, who are active participants in the respective technologies, ensures that the information provided is both reliable and current. Their views will no doubt enlighten our understanding of the future of energy from the nucleus.

Concerns about energy resources and the environmental impact of energy use will continue to be important globally. World Scientific's unique series of books on Current Energy Issues is intended, in part, as an expansion and update of the material contained in the World Scientific Handbook of Energy. Each volume will focus on related energy resources or issues and will contain a broader range of topics with more explanatory text.This Solar Energy volume covers a variety of approaches to the use of solar energy. These include large scale photovoltaic production of electricity as well as more local applications in the home and businesses. Similarly, there is an extensive discussion of large scale solar thermal electricity production and smaller scale uses such as solar water heating, home heating and cooling plus crop drying. There is also discussion of more forward-looking technologies including the production of fuels using artificial photosynthesis and the production of biomass.