The need to produce clean, sustainable power from renewable energy sources is now a worldwide concern. Renewable Energy provides a comprehensive overview of the principal renewable energy sources available today. For each one, it explains the underlying physical and technological principles, and examines environmental impacts and future prospects. This new edition has been carefully updated to include recent advances in renewable energy technology and to reflect increasing concerns over the environmental impact and sustainability of conventional fossil and nuclear fuel use. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the principal types of renewable energy—including solar, thermal photovoltaics, bioenergy, hydro, tidal, wind, wave, and geothermal. In addition, the text explains the underlying physical and technological principles of renewable energy and examines the environmental impact and future prospects of different energy sources. It includes over 350 detailed illustrations, more than fifty tables of data, and a wide range of case studies. Renewable Energy, 2e, is ideal for undergraduate courses in energy, sustainable development, and environmental science.

• Accessible to readers across a wide range of academic backgrounds
• Interdisciplinary approach covers the economic, social, environmental and policy issues raised by renewable energy, as well as describing their key physical and engineering features
• New full colour design includes hundreds of illustrations plus numerous tables of data and a wide range of detailed case studies
• Written by an experienced and authoritative course team at the Open University

Contents:

1. Brief Introduction—Godfrey Boyle
2. Bioenergy—Janet Ramage, Jonathan Scurlock and Stephen Larkin
3. Solar Thermal Energy—Bob Everett
4. Photovoltaic Power—Godfrey Boyle
5. Hydro Power—Janet Ramage
6. Tidal Energy—David Elliott
7. Wave Energy—Les Duckers
8. Wind Power—Derek Taylor
9. Geothermal Energy—Geoff Brown and John Garnish
10. Integration—Godfrey Boyle and Bob Everett

1. Introducing Renewable Energy, Gary Alexander and Godfrey Boyle; 2. Solar Thermal Energy, Bob Everett; 3. Solar Photovoltaics, Godfrey Boyle; 4. Bioenergy, Stephen Larkin, Janet Ramage and Jonathan Scurlock; 5. Hydroelectricity, Janet Ramage; 6. Tidal Power, David Elliott; 7. Wind Energy, Derek Taylor; 8. Wave Energy, Les Duckers; 9. Geothermal Energy, Geoff Brown and John Garnish; 10. Integration, Bob Everett and Godfrey Boyle

Edited by Godfrey Boyle, The Open University

`Review from previous edition It is high time that good textbooks on the subject become available on the market. Renewable Energy: Power for a Sustainable Future, is thus a timely and welcome addition to the existing literature on the subject...Godfrey Boyle and his team of authors have, in my view, managed to produce an outstanding textbook in which a wealth of information, including an extensive amount of data, is presented in a lucid and comprehensible form.' The Journal of Energy Literature, March 1997