Energy Books

Book SynopsisThe next few decades will see a profound energy transformation throughout the world. By the end of the century, we will shift from fossil fuel dependence to reply primarily on renewable sources like solar, wind biomass, and geothermal power. Driven by the need to avert catastrophic climate change and by the depletion of easily-accessible oil, coal, and natural gas, this transformation will entail a major shift in how we live. What might a 100% renewable future look like? Which technologies will play a critical role in our energy future? What challenges will we face in this transition? And how we can make sure our new system is just and equitable? In Our Renewable Future, expert Richard Heinberg and scientist David Frindley explore the challenges and opportunities presented by the shift to renewable energy. Beginning with a comprehensive overview of our current energy system, the author's survey issues of energy supply and demand in key components of society, including electricity generation, transportation, housing and manufacturing. In their detailed review of each sector, the authors examine the most crucial challenges we face, from intermittency in fuel sources to energy storage and grid redesign. The book concludes with a discussion of energy and equity and a summary of key lessons and steps forward at the individual, community, and national level. The transition to clean energy will not be a simple matter of replacing coal with wind power of oil with solar; it will require society to adapt our energy usage as dramatically as we adapt our energy sources. Our Renewable Future is a clear eyed and urgent guide to this transformation that will be a crucial resource for policymakers and energy activists. The Authors - Richard Heiberg is a Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute and is widely regarded as one of the world's foremost educators about the need to transition away from fossil fuels. He has authored twelve books, including The party's Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies and After burn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels, and scores of essays and articles that have appeared in such journals as Nature, The American Prospect, The pacific standard, Public Policy Research, Quarterly Review, The Ecologist, Resurgence, The Futurist, European Business Review, Earth Island Journal and The Sun. David Fridley has been staff scientists at the Energy Analysis Program at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California since 1995. He is also Dubiety Group Leader of Lawrence Berkeley's China Energy Group, which collaborates with China on end-user energy efficiency, government energy management programmes and energy policy research. Fridley has written and spoken extensively on the energy and ecological limits of biofuels and serves as Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Fellow at Post Carbon Institute.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents a comprehensive review of the renewable energy technologies environment and sustainable development; earth temperatures, heat pumps and systems design; the energy crisis and the role of renewables and global warming; energy and demand study of heating and cooling equipment; feedstocks for lignocellulosic biofuels; energy efficient technologies for refrigeration and air conditioning; and the principles of ground source energy.

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Book SynopsisWe are facing a crisis that threatens the sustainability of the entire planet. Civilisation has been defined up to now by how efficiently we handle our energy needs. The focus on short-term and tangibles obscures the true vision of technology users. Perpetual justifications of progressively less efficient technologies as panaceas has become a rampant source of the profoundest disinformation. No sector has fallen bigger victim to this disinformation campaign than the petroleum industry. Today, the most efficient naturally processed fuel (fossil fuel) production is synonymous with unsustainability and compatibility with nature and the environment. Accompanying this slogan is the environmentalists'' drumbeat about "renewable" energy. Everywhere people are sold on the idea that even genetically altered vegetable oil is sustainable and efficient whereas natural crude oil exploitation is not. With this slogan, it has become fashionable to replace the agricultural industry with "renewable" energy production and try to replace fossil fuel energy with nuclear energy. The industry that single-handedly served mankind a globalisation panacea on a silver platter has now become a villain worthy of being replaced with the makers of nuclear bombs and DDT. Similarly, carbon dioxide -- the essence of life and energy, through photosynthesis -- has become the other villain that must be "sequestered" and possibly replaced by hydrogen and even radioactive nuclear spent fuel.

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Book SynopsisWe are facing a crisis that threatens the sustainability of the entire planet. Civilisation has been defined up to now by how efficiently we handle our energy needs; nevertheless, today we are bombarded by proposals for alternative technologies that are more energy-intensive than whatever preceded. "Engineering" has come to mean more processing, greater profit margin, and yet more implosive outcome. Covering up this failure to develop sustainable alternatives highlight only short-term gain. The focus on short-term and tangibles obscures the true vision of technology users. Perpetual justifications of progressively less efficient technologies has become a rampant source of the profoundest disinformation. No sector has fallen bigger victim to this disinformation campaign than the petroleum industry. Today, the most efficient naturally processed fuel (fossil fuel) production is synonymous with unsustainability and compatibility with nature and the environment. Accompanying this slogan is the environmentalists'' drumbeat about "renewable" energy. Everywhere people are sold on the idea that even genetically altered vegetable oil is sustainable and efficient whereas natural crude oil exploitation is not. With this slogan, it has become fashionable to replace the agricultural industry with "renewable" energy production and try to replace fossil fuel energy with nuclear energy. The industry that single-handedly served mankind a globalisation panacea on a silver platter has now become a villain worthy of being replaced with the makers of nuclear bombs and DDT. Similarly, carbon dioxide -- the essence of life and energy, through photosynthesis -- has become the other villain that must be "sequestered" and possibly replaced by hydrogen and even radioactive nuclear spent fuel.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents a comprehensive review of energy research studies from authors around the globe, including recent research in new technologies associated with the construction of nuclear power plants; oil disperse systems study using nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry (NMRR); low energy consumption for cooling and heating systems; experimental investigation of the performance of a ground-source heat pump system for buildings heating and cooling; sustainable development of bioenergy from agricultural wastes and the environment; hazard identification and parametric analysis of toxic pollutants dispersion from large liquid hydrocarbon fuel-tank fires; maintenance benchmarking in petrochemicals plants by means of a multicriteria model; wind energy development innovation; power, people and pollution; nature and technology of geothermal energy and clean sustainable energy for the benefit of humanity and the environment; and soil thermal properties and the effects of groundwater on closed loops.

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Book SynopsisIn this book, the authors present topical research in the study of the types, design and efficiency of wind turbines. Topics discussed include modelling ice accretion and its effects on wind turbine blades; the challenges and possible solutions towards public acceptability of horizontal axis wind turbines as a clean energy solution for the future; optimising high-rise facade-integrated wind rotors; and wind energy extraction and storage by a modified VAWT.

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Book SynopsisA U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE/NETL) study estimated that in 2005, total U.S. freshwater withdrawals for thermoelectric power generation amounted to approximately 146 billion gallons per day (BGD), while freshwater consumption was 3.7 BGD. Coal-fired power plants use water for cooling water systems, flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) makeup, boiler makeup, ash handling, wastewater treatment, and general plant wash down. As the population continues to increase, electric and water demands are expected to grow. Thermoelectric power generation requires a large quantity of freshwater to support operations. In regions of the country with limited freshwater supplies, thermoelectric power generation may be competing with other uses for dwindling freshwater supplies. This book focuses on the research that has been done to date for the non-traditional sources of process and cooling water components. Studies in this research area focus on identifying potential new water sources, including brackish and saline water supplies and various domestic and industrial wastewaters. In particular, these studies focus on understanding the location, volumes, and quality of different non-traditional waters, as well as treatment technologies to reduce the scaling, biofouling, and corrosion potential of available impaired waters that would not otherwise be useful in a cooling water system or other processes within a thermoelectric plant.

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Book SynopsisAppliance energy efficiency standards and labeling (S&L) programs have been important policy tools for regulating the efficiency of energy-using products for over 40 years and continue to expand in terms of geographic and product coverage. The most common S&L programs include mandatory minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) that seek to push the market for efficient products, and energy information and endorsement labels that seek to pull the market. This book seeks to review and compare some of the earliest and most well-developed S&L programs in three countries and one region: the U.S. MEPS and ENERGY STAR, Australia MEPS and Energy Label, European Union MEPS and Ecodesign requirements and Energy Label and Japanese Top Runner programs. For each program, key elements of S&L programs are evaluated and comparative analyses across the programs undertaken to identify best practice examples of individual elements as well as cross-cutting factors for success and lessons learned in international S&L program development and implementation.

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Book SynopsisThis first volume of "Climate, Energy, and Environment: Issues, Analyses, and Developments" presents current topical research in the study of the challenges that affect whether actions to preserve forests could make a cost-effective contribution to reducing global emissions of greenhouse gases; the potential of ocean fertilisation for climate change mitigation; the energy and economic impacts of U.S. federal energy and water conservation standards adopted from 1987 through 2011; and Klamath Basin settlement agreements.

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Book SynopsisHydropower is the power derived from the energy in moving water. Hydroelectricity is created by converting the kinetic energy in moving water to mechanical energy in turbine machinery, which is then used to generate electricity. In this book, the authors present current research in the study of the types, development strategies and environmental impacts of hydropower. Topics discussed include the history and present state of global hydropower development and engineering and types of hydropower structures; and a study of hydropower as a renewable and environmentally friendly energy source.

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Book SynopsisElectricity today is widely viewed as a commodity. As a commodity, electricity is bought and sold as both power and energy, with various attributes being traded in electricity markets. However, electricity has some unique characteristics which distinguish it from almost all other commodities. In this book, the authors discuss the recent issues in market structure and energy trading in the electricity markets and provide a handbook of energy market basics.

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Book SynopsisThis book examines relatively new, innovative financing methods for residential photovoltaics (PV) and compares them to traditional self-financing methods. It provides policymakers with an overview of residential PV financing mechanisms, describes relative advantages and challenges between the various financing mechanisms, and analyses differences between them where data is available. Because these innovative financing mechanisms have only been implemented in a few locations, this book can help enable their wider adoption.

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Book SynopsisSolar energy technologies continue to be deployed at unprecedented levels, aided significantly by the advent of large-scale projects that sell their power directly to electric utilities. Such utility-scale systems can deploy solar technologies far faster than traditional "behind-the-meter" projects designed to offset retail load. These systems achieve significant economies of scale during construction and operation, and in attracting financial capital, which can in turn reduce the delivered cost of power. Topics discussed in this compilation include a technology and market overview of utility-scale concentrating solar power and photovoltaics projects; federal and state structures to support financing utility-scale solar projects and the business models designed to utilise them; and the impact of financial structure on the cost of solar energy.

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Book SynopsisToday''s utility planners have a different market and economic context than their predecessors, including planning for the growth of renewable energy. State and federal support policies, solar photovoltaic (PV) price declines, and the introduction of new business models for solar PV "ownership" are leading to increasing interest in solar technologies (especially PV); however, solar introduces myriad new variables into the utility resource planning decision. This book focuses on the treatment of solar generation in electric utility resource planning and provides and evaluation of solar valuation methods used in utility planning and procurement processes.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents results from the first U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored, bottom-up data-collection and analysis of non-hardware balance-of-system costs -- often referred to as "business process" or "soft" costs -- for residential and commercial photovoltaic (PV) systems. It quantifies the indirect corporate costs required to install distributed PV systems as well as the transactional costs associated with arranging third-party financing. It accompanies the recent National Renewable Energy Laboratory soft cost benchmarking report (Friedman et al 2013), which quantifies all the non-hardware balance-of-system costs associated with building a residential or commercial PV system.

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Book SynopsisBiodiesel, which consists of long-chain fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) obtained from renewable lipids such as those in vegetable oils or animal fat can be used as both an alternative fuel and an additive for petroleum diesel. This book gathers research from across the globe in the study of biodiesel blends, properties and applications. Topics discussed include biodiesel purification methods; exhaust emissions study of biodiesel operated garbage trucks; the heterogeneous catalyst for the transesterification of triglycerides into biodiesel; valorisation of wastes and by-products derived from biodiesel manufacturing and biodiesel production using cation-exchange resin as heterogeneous acid catalyst.

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Book SynopsisEnergy storage technologies (such as pumped hydro, compressed air energy storage, various types of batteries, flywheels, electrochemical capacitors, etc.) provide for multiple applications that include energy management, backup power, load levelling, frequency regulation, voltage support, and grid stabilisation. Importantly, not every type of storage is suitable for every type of application, motivating the need for a portfolio strategy for energy storage technology. There are four challenges related to the widespread deployment of energy storage. The challenges are cost competitive energy storage technologies (including manufacturing and grid integration), validated reliability and safety, equitable regulatory environment, and industry acceptance. This book sets out potential options to improve energy storage. It also presents a number of specific actions that could help maintain both scientific advancements and a pipeline of project deployments.

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Book SynopsisThe U.S. energy service company (ESCO) industry is an example of a private sector business model where energy savings are delivered to customers primarily through the use of performance-based contracts. ESCO has largely been a successful model for the cost-effective delivery of energy-efficient technologies and services to public/institutional sector customers. This book analyzes the market size, growth projections and industry trends in ESCO, drawing on information from interviews with ESCO executives conducted in late 2012. It also provides a preliminary estimate of remaining ESCO market potential in terms of the onetime project investment potential and annual blended energy savings remaining in U.S. buildings typically addressed by ESCOs, based on market penetration estimates provided by ESCOs and industry experts. The book reports the range of impacts of the U.S. economic recession on ESCOs'' state and local institutional projects and their use of incentives, tax credits, and financing mechanisms.

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Book SynopsisThe Long Island Solar Farm project came together as a joint effort of five very different interest groups: a federal agency, a research institution, an electric utility, a private business, and the general public. The project is remarkable for three major reasons: first, it is the largest utility-scale solar power plant in the Eastern United States; second, it is a commercial project built on federally administered public lands; and third, the project was very unlikely to have started in the first place. The process by which the Long Island Solar Farm was developed is intricate and unusual. This reflects many of the nuanced conditions that made siting the solar farm on federal property a unique opportunity for very different groups. This book discusses project concepts; the process involved in executing the projects; and also provides an environmental assessment for the BP solar array project from the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

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Book SynopsisIn recent years, the number of utilities across the country offering incentives to encourage customers to adopt solar power has grown substantially. Often this is because utilities are required to meet solar energy mandates or generation targets. Utilities have voluntarily encouraged the adoption of solar energy or established incentive programs to meet internal clean energy goals. While solar photovoltaic (PV) system costs are rapidly falling, costs for distributed systems are still above retail rates in most jurisdictions, and require incentives to support customer adoption. This book explores best practices for designing and implementing incentives for small and mid-sized residential and commercial distributed solar energy projects.

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Book SynopsisSince 2004, the federal government has made efforts to facilitate demand-response activities, including expanding their use in wholesale electricity markets. Among these efforts, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued regulatory orders affecting Regional Transmission Organizations (RTO)entities that operate the transmission system and administer wholesale markets in some parts of the country. For example, FERC issued orders approving RTO rules for quantifying the extent of demand-response activities and compensating consumers for their demand-response activities. This book provides an update since 2004 and discusses federal efforts to facilitate demand-response activities; FERC efforts to collect and report data on demand response activities; changes in the extent of demand-response activities; key benefits and challenges of current efforts.

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Book SynopsisUnder Executive Order 12866, agencies are required, to the extent permitted by law, "to assess both the costs and the benefits of the intended regulation and, recognising that some costs and benefits are difficult to quantify, propose or adopt a regulation only upon a reasoned determination that the benefits of the intended regulation justify its costs". The purpose of the "social cost of carbon" (SCC) estimates presented here is to allow agencies to incorporate the social benefits of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into cost-benefit analyses of regulatory actions that have small, or "marginal", impacts on cumulative global emissions. The estimates are presented with an acknowledgement of the many uncertainties involved and with a clear understanding that they should be updated over time to reflect increasing knowledge of the science and economics of climate impacts. This book presents a summary of the interagency process that developed these SCC estimates.

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Book SynopsisThis book highlights recent advances in energy research. The chapters included in this volume include research on nuclear power reactors, specifically small modular reactors (SMRs) for electricity generation; stakeholder participation in local energy-planning and the possible ways of integrating stakeholder participation in current energy planning practices; a comprehensive review of energy sources, and the development of sustainable technologies to explore these energy sources; the modeling and analysis of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) fired CCHP system, compared to the conventional method of generating useful energy, which is assumed to be a centralized electricity-only power plant; electrospray deposition method for fabricating organic photovoltaic cells; the application of energy-saving, passive strategies in occupied school building spaces; an evaluation of energy consumption in buildings with complex topology equipped with a HVAC system; and an evaluation of solar thermal technologies and applications.

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Book SynopsisAlmost four decades ago, in response to the Arab oil embargo and recession it triggered, Congress passed legislation restricting crude oil exports and establishing the SPR to release oil to the market during supply disruptions and protect the U.S. economy from damage. After decades of generally falling U.S. crude oil production, technological advances have contributed to increasing U.S. production. This book examines what is known about price implications of removing crude oil export restrictions; other key potential implications; and implications of recent changes in market conditions on the SPR. This book also discusses and describes the status of applications to export liquefied natural gas-natural gas cooled to a liquid state for transport- and the Department of Energy''s process to review them; and the status of applications to build LNG export facilities and FERC''s process to review them.

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Book SynopsisThe people who use Federal buildings Federal employees, operations and maintenance staff, and the general public can significantly impact a building''s environmental performance and the consumption of energy, water, and materials. Many factors influence building occupants'' use of resources (use behaviors) including work process requirements, ability to fulfill agency missions, new and possibly unfamiliar high-efficiency/high-performance building technologies; a lack of understanding, education, and training; inaccessible information or ineffective feedback mechanisms; and cultural norms and institutional rules and requirements, among others. While many strategies have been used to introduce new occupant use behaviors that promote sustainability and reduced resource consumption, few have been verified in the scientific literature or have properly documented case study results. This book documents validated strategies that have been shown to encourage new use behaviors that can result in significant, persistent, and measureable reductions in resource consumption. This book also presents guidance and recommendations on the benefits and complexities in the use of submetering technologies for new and existing buildings.

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Book SynopsisThis latest volume includes contributions on the latest advances in energy research. Chapters include research on a Multi Agent System (MAS) design for fault location, isolation and service restoration (FLISR) in power distribution systems; coalbed methane (CBM) reservoirs in China, their properties and strategies in which to reduce formation damage; a comprehensive review of energy sources; energy efficiency and ways to alleviate environmental impacts of the building sector; small-scale energy converters; current conditions, limitations and opportunities of existing carbon dioxide emissions; progress on tidal current technology in the UK and elsewhere as well as key design issues and options; and finally, the occurrence and properties of Mongolian bituminous coal which is presented and discussed in relation to its characterisations, petrography, pyrolysis and minerals.

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Book SynopsisDesalination technologies utilise various forms of energy to produce freshwater. The first chapter of this book provides an exergy analysis of desalination systems. The second chapter provides an exergy analysis of the indoor environment and its impact on human thermal comfort in connection with temperature, heat and mass transfer. The third chapter reviews different studies conducted on exergy analysis from biomass. The last chapter provides a system exergy analysis of an oxy-fuel combustion power plant integrated with carbon dioxide capture, transport and storage.

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Book SynopsisProduction of oil and natural gas from leased federal lands and waters is a significant source of revenue for the federal government. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued many reports on Interior''s management of federal oil and gas resources, including its programs for verifying oil and gas production volumes and ensuring accurate royalty collections. These reports raised questions about whether the government was collecting all the revenue it was due and included 36 recommendations to strengthen royalty collection, among other things. In 2011, GAO added Interior''s management of federal oil and gas resources to its list of programs at high risk of fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. This book examines efforts Interior has taken since fiscal year 2009 and the reasonableness and completeness of Interior''s royalty data. The book also assesses the extent to which Interior''s production verification regulations and policies provide reasonable assurance that oil and gas are accurately measured; the extent to which Interior''s offshore and onshore production accountability inspection programs consistently set and meet program goals and address key factors affecting measurement accuracy; and Interior''s management of its production verification programs. Finally, it provides a descriptive update on Interior''s Minerals Management Service''s (MMS) key efforts to improve the accuracy of oil and gas royalty data; the assessment of the completeness and reasonableness of fiscal years 2006 and 2007 oil and gas royalty datathe latest data available; and factors identified by oil and gas companies that affect their ability to accurately report royalties owed to the federal government.

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Book SynopsisThe future of oil and natural gas production in Mexico is of importance for both Mexico''s economic growth, as well as for U.S. energy security, a key congressional interest. Mexico is a top trade partner and the 3rd largest crude oil supplier to the United States. Mexico''s state oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) remains an important source of government revenue even as it is struggling to counter declining oil production and reserves. Due to an inability to meet rising demand, Mexico has also significantly increased natural gas imports from the United States. Still, gas shortages have hindered the country''s economic performance. This book provides an overview of Pemex and the content and prospects for Mexico''s energy reforms, before discussing specific issues facing Mexico''s oil and gas industry. It then examines the U.S.-Mexico energy relationship through the lenses of trade and energy cooperation. It concludes by suggesting several oversight issues for Congress related to what the enactment of energy reform might portend for Mexico''s economic development, the U.S. energy matrix, and bilateral or North American energy cooperation.

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Book SynopsisElectricity in the United States has traditionally been generated largely from coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydropower energy sources. More recently, various federal and state policies, tax incentives, and research and development efforts have supported the use of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal. In addition, consumption of electricity has been affected by federal efforts to improve energy efficiency, changes in the economy, and other factors. This book examines what is known about how electricity generation and consumption have changed since 2001, and the implications of these changes on efforts to maintain reliability, and on electricity prices.

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Book SynopsisConstrained budgets and increasing energy efficiency goals have led federal agencies to explore innovative ways to fund energy improvements, including the Department of Energy''s Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPC). An expected increase in the use of ESPCs has raised questions about agencies'' ability to ensure that the government''s interests are protected. ESPCs can span up to 25 years and be valued at millions of dollars each. This book examines the extent to which agencies have used ESPCs and plan to use them; projects have achieved their expected cost and energy savings; and agencies have overseen and evaluated such projects.

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Book SynopsisIndian energy resources hold significant potential for development, but remain largely undeveloped. Interior''s Bureau of Indian Affairs'' (BIA) reviews and approves leases and other permits required for development. Other Interior components and federal agencies also have roles in this process. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 provided the opportunity for interested tribes to pursue tribal energy resource agreements (TERA)agreements between a tribe and Interior that allow the tribe to enter into energy leases and agreements without review and approval by Interior. The act also authorises Interior to provide grants to tribes to develop the capacity needed to enter into a TERA. However, no tribe has entered into a TERA. This book examines factors that have hindered Indian energy development; factors that have deterred tribes from pursuing TERAs; and the effectiveness of Interior''s efforts to build tribes'' capacity to enter into TERAs. Moreover, the book provides results of a final evaluation report on oil and gas leasing in Indian Country; and uses an established geospatial methodology to estimate the technical potential for renewable energy on tribal lands for the purpose of allowing Tribes to prioritise the development of renewable energy resources either for community-scale on-tribal-land use or for revenue-generating electricity sales.

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Book SynopsisDuring the last twenty years, ionic liquids have become one of the most interesting and rapidly developing areas of modern physical chemistry, technologies and engineering, including constructing new devices for various applications. In order to protect the environment and provide energy security, energy generated from renewable sources has been extensively studied. This book provides a critical review of the progress of using room temperature ionic liquids in green energy storage systems. The use of ionic liquids as electrolytes in electrochemical devices is an emerging field due to their high conductivity, as well as their thermal, chemical and electrochemical stability under anhydrous conditions. Readers will encounter five chapters in this book on recent applications of ionic liquids in supercapacitors, hydrogen production, fuel cells, Li-ion batteries, and solar cells. Also, modern trends and perspectives are discussed. This book attempts to give a general overview of ionic liquids, identifies the key factors for future research and summarises the recent progress in the use of ionic liquids as an innovative type of energy storage systems.

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Book SynopsisMany regions within the United States experience moderate to exceptional drought forcing state officials to make difficult choices regarding energy and water. Competition for freshwater continues to increase due to industrial, municipal, and especially agricultural and energy sector demand. This book assesses advanced and emerging technologies that can reduce water use in hydraulic fracturing and thermoelectric power plant cooling. It also examines the impact of regional differences in thermoelectric power generation on water use in water-stressed versus unstressed areas of the United States. Furthermore, this book addresses how the U.S. energy sector uses and relies on water.

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Book SynopsisThis latest volume includes contributions on the latest advances in energy research. Chapter One introduces photovoltaic-green (PV-green) roofing systems according to three different approaches: critical review about crucial factors which influence the performance of a PV-green roof; experimental; and environmental/Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). Chapter Two discusses the benefits of green roof systems. Chapter Three provides an introduction to the composition and the functioning of building management systems (BMS), as well as shows some of the available systems in the market, specifically those that are related to the automatic control of lighting and shading devices according to sunlight intensity, climate control and the monitoring of energy consumption in a service building. Chapter Four reviews both the experimental and numerical work that has been conducted on encapsulated phase change material (EPCM) thermal energy storage (TES) systems with applications in concentrating solar power (CSP) plants. Chapter Five presents the effect of thermal energy storage on the performance of combined heat and power (CHP) systems under different operational strategies. Chapter Six studies the effects of different levels of water flow rate and temperature on the performance of an induced draft cooling tower. Chapter Seven reviews the harvesting of power from bamboo charcoal. Chapter Eight investigates the magnetosphere-ionosphere-atmosphere coupling and the effect of geomagnetic activity on meteorological processes in the atmosphere.

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Book SynopsisDuring energy utilization and conversion, thermal energy is either an intermediate product or a byproduct; that is, thermal transport plays a critical role on efficiency, reliability, and safety of the energy systems. Recent development in nanotechnologies enabled significant improvement of the thermal energy storage performance, fuel cell, battery and thermoelectric devices. To meet the ever increasing challenges posed by energy systems, innovative and transformative measures must be taken to significantly improve the performance of these devices. Such measures will not be possible without a thorough understanding of thermal transport at molecular, nano-and microscale levels because physical phenomena occurring at the molecular, nano- and microscale will have profound effects on the performance at the system level. Understanding of multiscale thermal transport in the energy system is essential to improve their performance.

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Book SynopsisThe Department of Defense (DOD) collects information on how Energy Conservation Investment Program (ECIP) projects are expected to perform when operational, including anticipated returns on investment and energy or water savings. DOD established ECIP, which funds projects at military installations that are designed to conserve energy or water, generate electricity from renewable sources, promote energy security, or accomplish a combination of these goals. This book assesses the extent to which DOD has reported anticipated returns on investment or reduced energy use from ECIP-funded projects; found that completed ECIP projects have resulted in cost savings or lower energy use; and developed and implemented a strategic vision for ECIP.

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Book SynopsisEnergy Impacts brings together important new research on site-level social, economic, and behavioral impacts from large-scale energy development.

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