50 Energy Books

The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future By Gretchen Bakke, Ph.D. Main Points: The current state of the U.S. grid is the product of several interesting pieces of legislation passed over the years. The Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act of 1978 forced competition between the established utilities and smaller electricity suppliers/ plants, thus diversifying the grid sources of energy. This first step in deregulation led to the Energy Policy Act in 1992  which unbundled generation and transmission. Bakke says "It did so for a reason, and that reason was energy trading. The act turned electricity into a commodity."The result of this has been corruption in the form of companies like Enron that manipulated the markets by creating artificial shortages and destabilization of voltage levels the grid- resulting in more surges or brownouts. How does the grid work with so many players? You might have heard ISO/RTO, PUC, IRP, IOU, or POU. You ...

Power to Save the World: The Truth about Nuclear Energy by Gwyneth Cravens Main Points: In 1940, scientists discovered that the uranium atom used in fission is the U-235 isotope which is only 0.7% of natural uranium. Ms. Cravens walks the reader through the process of enriching uranium- by taking uranium oxide, adding fluorine gas, centrifuging the uranium hexafluoride, thus isolating the heavier uranium isotopes. Nuclear waste is a central topic in this book and several interesting ideas are thrown out that I had never come across. First, Cravens delves into the pros and cons of the Yucca Mountain repository. The DOE implemented a tax on utilities with nuclear power plants in 1987 to start funding the central repository, but defaulted on their promise. The $9 billion facility has yet to be used, despite fierce opposition from Nevadan senators. The second location that is often overlooked is the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico in the southeastern...

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, & Power by Daniel Yergin Main Points: Oil contributed to the rise of capitalism. Whether it was the creation of the first monopoly in Standard Oil that faced antitrust suits in case #398 in May of 1911 or the decision by Calouste Gulbenkian to allow foreign oil majors to participate in the production of oil within the boundaries of the old Ottoman empire at a cost of 5% of their profits, capitalism is front and center in the story of oil. In order to prevent Iran moving into the hands of the Soviets, the United States CIA and Churchill created Operation Ajax to depose Mossadegh Mohammad and replace him with the Shah of Iran. In order to prevent Enrico Mattei from pushing a Soviet Union pipeline into Italy or changing the way profits are divided between oil majors and governments, interested powers facilitated his death. Capitalism and the economic force of open markets helped determine the price of oil, quantity of oil, and th...

Taming the Sun: Innovation to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet by Varun Sivaram Main Points: The History of Solar Energy has its origins in the Chinese Yong Sui, Augustin Mouchet who in 1874 built a solar engine using concentrated solar power, Bequerel who in 1839 started employing the solar voltaic effect, Einstein's Annus Mirabilus in 1905 where he published the first paper on the effect, Bell Labs who in 1953 helped develop the first commercial solar cell in remote locations to power relaying stations/switches for AT&T Bell, and the Big Oil industry that helped also invest in the technology through the 90's into the 21st century. The purpose of the book is to understand the potential for solar, why we have not adopted the technology widely, and what it will take to get there. Sivaram notes a "Capital Gap" of $2.5 trillion in investment that will need to take place by 2040. He also believes in a hybrid system in developing countries that sti...

Wind Power: Renewable Energy for Home, Farm, and Business by Paul Gipe Main Points: Wind power ultimately depends upon three key things: wind velocity, rotor length, and air density. Due to the lapse rate, temperature drops by 6.5 degrees Celsius for every kilometer of elevation thus making the pressure decrease, and hence why the air is less dense at higher elevations. The wind velocities mainly an exponential function of height, where the exponent is the shear factor and is 0.14 (1/7) for standard applications, higher for rougher terrain, and lower for smoother terrain. Normally if height increases by 5x, then the power increases by 2x- this is the case behind the company Makani Power (see below). Rotor length is the key consideration as this controls the swept area of the wind turbine. Power is proportional to the square of the turbine blade length, hence why 0.5m turbine blades produce 100 Watts, while 20 meter long blades can produce 3 megawatts. The two most common type...

Bottled Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy By Seth Fletcher :Main Points A majority of the world reserves of lithium can be found in South America in Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. Here, the "Lithium Triangle" is home to a large number of salt flats that are rich with lithium- Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia), Salar de Atacama (Chile), and Salar del Hombre Puerto (Argentina). Estimated global lithium reserves and resources are 29.9 million tons and the current  world lithium demand is 16,000 metric tons. Nevada has lithium rich clay residing under more than 80% of the state's federal land. The McDermitt Caldera is one such example of an ancient volcano that collapsed on itself and is home to plenty of  lithium, gallium, uranium, gold, etc. Western Lithium mines heavily here. The future of batteries for electric cars is exciting. The threshold that the US Advanced Battery  Consortium set was $200/kWh for a battery to...

Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era by Amory B. Lovins, founder of Rocky Mountain Institute Main Points: Rocky Mountain Institute is a 501(c) tax-exempt nonprofit whose primary mission is to drive energy efficiency and proper use of material resources. Their $13 million/yr revenue comes from partnerships with private-sector to employ energy efficient standards/integrative design to existing spaces. Reinventing Fire is their thesis to reduce use, modulate demand, and optimize supply of energy to the world before 2050. It focuses on advances in transportation, buildings, industry, and electricity that can help us reduce emissions by 80% and generate $5 trillion in value for the U.S. economy. Transportation: A major point in this book is on the use of single-person auto's. Currently 77% of Americans drive to work in a single-person auto, more than 10x all of the Americans who carpool.  Additionally, trains are 2x cost effective and 5x more fuel e...