The Renaissance of Renewable Energy

This book provides detailed yet easily understandable information about sustainable energy alternatives in the context of growing public concern about climate change, the impending fuel crisis and environmental degradation. It deals with the history of energy use and the factors that have led to the current interest in energy alternatives, and assesses the chance of renewable energy replacing fossil fuels in the future. The authors manage to make a highly complex and often intimidating subject not only accessible but also engaging and entertaining. This book unpacks but never simplifies the science of energy, leavening the more technical passages with anecdotes, metaphors, examples and imagery. By also dealing with the history, politics and economics of energy use, it offers both scientific and non-scientific readers a deeper understanding of the most important issue of our age.

1. What is energy?; 2. Where does energy come from?; 3. How much energy is enough?; 4. How energy is produced; 5. Challenging times: the politics and economics of energy; 6. The price of energy consumption; 7. Energy from my backyard.

Gian Andrea Pagnoni is a lecturer at the University of Ferrara. He has published 11 books on travel and science in his native Italy, as well as numerous scientific papers on environmental issues. His most recent publication, Energie da Biomasse (Energy from Biomass), was published in 2011. In 2001, he co-founded the Istituto Delta di Ecologia Applicata Srl (the Delta Institute of Applied Ecology), an independent consultancy for environmental assessments and environmental project management. In recent years, he has focused mainly on the fields of renewable energy and environmental conservation.
Stephen Roche heads the publication department of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning in Hamburg, Germany, and edits a scholarly journal, the International Review of Education. From 2005 to 2012, he set up and ran a translation agency, Network Translators, supervising the translation or editing of more than 100 books, reports and research papers in the fields of architecture, economics, education, environmental science, history and international development. From 2009 to 2012, he also worked at the University of Hamburg, developing and teaching courses in academic writing and English literature.