The Clean Energy Revolution

Communities and the Clean Energy Revolution: Public Health, Economics, Design, and Transformation is an engaging and interdisciplinary investigation into clean energy systems such as solar and wind power and the need to transform our energy system. Looking at the intersection of clean energy with community engagement, diversity, and economic development, it is a remarkably accessible account from the front lines of the clean energy revolution. Organized as a series of case studies set in eight locations, the author profiles people leading varied renewable energy projects from using solar to survive hurricanes to passing a Green New Deal bill for America’s largest city, the beginnings of the offshore wind industry, modular solar power systems, and changing the culture of an entire utility. Each case study is set into context of broader research, addressing how cities and states meet clean energy goals, howsolar or wind power address blackouts, and how individuals can accelerate clean energy for their home, business, or community. This book goes beyond merely explaining clean energy transition by providing unique insight into the calls for a complete transformation of America’s energy system.

A historic energy revolution is underway in the United States. Wind, sunlight, and other sustainable resources are now the fastest growing sources of energy in the U.S. and worldwide. American families are installing power plants on their roofs and entire communities are switching to 100 percent renewable energy. The urgent need to prevent climate change is causing people around the planet to question their reliance on carbon-intensive oil, coal, and natural gas. Author Bill Ritter, Jr., the 41st governor of Colorado and one of America's key thought leaders on this topic, discusses the forces behind the energy revolution, the new ways we must think about energy, and the future of fossil and renewable fuels. It is an essential read for any who want to understand one of history's biggest challenges to peace, prosperity, and security in the United States. Written in partnership with the Center for a New Energy Economy.

The need for clean energy is not only a matter of environmental responsibility but also one of social and economic justice. The benefits of clean energy, such as reduced pollution and improved public health, are often overlooked in discussions about climate change. By promoting clean energy, we can not only reduce our carbon footprint but also create a more sustainable and equitable future for all. This book, "The Clean Energy Revolution," is a comprehensive guide to the world of clean energy. The goal of this book is to make clean energy accessible to everyone, regardless of their background or level of knowledge. Whether you are an expert in the field or just starting to learn about clean energy, this book is for you.

The transformation from a carbon-based world economy to one based on high efficiency and renewables is a necessary step if human society is to achieve sustainability. But while scientists and researchers have made significant advances in energy efficiency and renewable technologies in recent years, consumers have yet to see dramatic changes in the marketplace—due in large part to government policies and programs that favor the use of fossil fuels. Energy Revolution examines the policy options for mitigating or removing the entrenched advantages held by fossil fuels and speeding the transition to a more sustainable energy future, one based on improved efficiency and a shift to renewable sources such as solar, wind, and bioenergy. The book: examines today's energy patterns and trends and their consequences describes the barriers to a more sustainable energy future and how those barriers can be overcome provides ten case studies of integrated strategies that have been effective in different parts of the world examines international policies and institutions and recommends ways they could be improved reviews global trends that suggest that the transition to renewables and increased efficiency is underway and is achievable Energy policy represents a linchpin for achieving a broader transition to a more sustainable economy. Energy Revolution offers a unique focus on policies and programs, and on the lessons provided by recent experience. It represents a key statement of the available options for reforming energy policy that have proven to be successful, and is an essential work for policymakers, researchers, and anyone concerned with energy and sustainability issues.

Green will illustrate and shed new light on the gamut of issues associated with renewable energy, a topic whose importance increases exponentially with every temperature record-setting year. Jane and Michael Hoffman use their years of experience to explain the technological and economic future of this ecologically significant issue. They incisively explain its politics: what countries are doing right now and, most importantly, what the U.S. should be doing. Green will cut through the hype and polemics surrounding ecologically friendly technologies and present the unvarnished truth. It will guide the reader through the misinformation and confusion over global warming, and demonstrate the degree to which renewable energy can be part of the solution.

Follow the journey of a Canadian and Indian couple, Savannah and Sandeep, as they travel the world to capture the human side of one of the biggest energy transitions of our times - the global shift from fossil fuels to renewables. In this exciting and provocative new book, readers are taken into the homes of the coal miners who live and work in Jharia, a town in India that has been on fire for the past 100 years due to poor coal mining practices. Life in Jharia is a version of Dante's inferno - 700,000 people live in the most unimaginable conditions. Yet even though residents of Jharia say they are dying slowly every day, they also say they'll never leave. Almost 11,000 kilometres away, in the Canadian oil sands, workers and indigenous people similarly describe their complex relationship with the industry that employs them. Although fossil fuel extraction is harming the environment and impacting people's way of life in the oil sands region, a much-needed shift to renewable energy could also leave communities without their livelihoods. Written in the form of a travelogue, Total Transition provides a whirlwind look at the global growth of renewable energy - highlighting exciting developments in solar and wind energy in Canada, India, Africa and Europe, and discussing hurdles standing in the way of a total transition. Energy experts and leaders of innovative renewable energy projects share hope and optimism about the future of fossil fuel workers and their communities in an increasingly renewable world.

Our environment and society is threatened by fuel shortages, a changing climate and energy wars. In our race for survival we are awakened to the simple truth that the essential condition of sustainability lies in our ability to live within the limits and renewability of natural resources. It invokes within us an urgent need for transition from an obsolete, destructive and unsustainable energy path to a sustainable path of innovation, renewable energy and peace. The good news is that the technology required to make this transition is already available. From an author with over thirty years' experience campaigning for and setting up renewable energy projects around the world, this book is unique for its interdisciplinary approach-interweaving technology, economics, environmental science, philosophy, history, spirituality and politics, asserting that to understand the crisis and find a sustainable solution requires a holistic perspective. Readers will understand the vast renewable resource we have at our disposal in the form of solar, wind, water, heat and biogas, and the technologies used to harness this power. There are also the emerging prospects of solar hydrogen fuel cells, biofuels and geothermal. The true economic advantages of a shift to a renewables-based economy (and how we can get there) are also laid out clearly. There's much to learn from examples around the world while we devise local and appropriate solutions. Written for a crossover readership of students, educators, professionals, academics, activists and policymakers, both nationally and internationally, this is a comprehensive but readable and practical book that will inspire readers to wake others up to our renewable solutions.

A guided tour of a revolution in the making that promises to change our lives Global warming, rolling black outs, massive tanker spills, oil dependence: our profligate ways have doomed us to suffer such tragedies, right? Perhaps, but Vijay Vaitheeswaran, the energy and environment correspondent for The Economist, sees great opportunity in the energy realm today, and Power to the People is his fiercely independent and irresistibly entertaining look at the economic, political, and technological forces that are reshaping the world's management of energy resources. In it, he documents an energy revolution already underway--a revolution as radical as the communications revolution of the past decades.