Energy Technology Choices

This diverse resource on renewable energy and sustainable technologies highlights the status, state of the art, challenges, advancements and options in areas such as energy recovery systems, turbine ventilators, green composites, biofuels and bio-resources for energy production, wind energy, integrated energy-efficient systems, thermal energy storage, natural ventilation & day-lighting systems, and low carbon technologies for building and environmental applications. It is designed to serve as a reference book for students, researchers, manufacturers and professionals working in these fields. The editors have gathered articles from world-leading experts that clearly illustrate key areas in renewable energy and sustainability. The distinct role of these technologies in future endeavors is stressed by taking into account the opportunities to contribute with new approaches, methods and directions for building and environmental applications. The in-depth discussion presented in this book will give readers a clear understanding of every important aspect of each technology’s applications, optimum configuration, modifications, limitations and their possible improvements.

This book provides an up-to-date review of the status and prospects of different options in energy conversion and storage technologies, as seen by a panel of world leading experts. It offers a platform for readers engaged in planning and undertaking new energy solutions, or retrofitting and redesigning the existing installations, to confront and to compare the pros and cons of various novel technology options. This book presents state-of-the-art papers on a timely topic.

This publication presents an overview of major renewable energy technologies and a discussion of the policy frameworks that will further their deployment. It also gives a brief discussion of scenarios that can lead to a sustainable energy future.

Readers of this work will find examinations of the current status and future status for energy sources and technologies, their environmental interactions and the relevant global energy policies. The work begins with an overview of Energy Technologies for a Sustainable Future, which examines the correlation between population, economy and energy consumption in the past, and reviews the conventional and renewable energy sources as well as the management of them to sustain the ever-growing energy demand in the future. The rest of the chapters are divided into 3 parts; the first part of the book, “Energy Sources, Technologies and Environment”, consists of 12 chapters, which include research on new energy technologies and evaluation of their environmental effects. The second part “Advanced Energy Materials” includes 7 chapters devoted to research on material science for new energy technologies. The final section titled “Energy Management, Economics and Policy” is comprised of 10 chapters about planning, controlling and monitoring energy related processes together with the policies to satisfy the needs of increasing population and growing economy. The chapters are selected works from the International Conference on Energy and Management, which was organized by Istanbul Bilgi University Department of Energy Systems Engineering and PALMET Energy to share the knowledge on the recent trends, scientific developments, innovations and management methods in energy, and held on 5–7th June 2014 at Istanbul Bilgi University.

Vision 21 reviews the goals of the Department of Energy's (DOE) Vision 21 Program (DOE's vision for the future of coal-based power generation) and to recommend systems and approaches for moving from concept to reality. Vision 21 is an ambitious, forward-looking program for improving technologies and reducing the environmental impacts of using fossil fuels (petroleum, natural gas, and coal) to produce electricity, process heat, transportation fuels, and chemicals.