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This book provides both perspective and detail on the relative merits and state of progress of technologies for utilizing the various ´renewables´. The analysis considers emissions, sustainability, cost implications and energy security, as political and economic pressures move society towards a low-carbon future.

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The provision of sustainable energy supplies for an expanding and increasingly productive world is one of the major issues facing civilisation today. Renewable Energy examines both the practical and economic potential of the renewable energy sources to meet this challenge. The underlying physical and technological principles behind deriving power from direct solar (solar thermal and photovoltaics), indirect solar (biomass, hydro, wind and wave) and
non-solar (tidal and geothermal) energy sources are explained, within the context of their environmental impacts, their economics and their future prospects.

Renewable Energy provides both perspective and detail on the relative merits and state of progress of technologies for utilizing the various ´renewables´. The analysis considers emissions, sustainability, cost implications and energy security, as political and economic pressures move society towards a low-carbon future. From an overview of basic energy conversion processes, through a discussion of the individual renewable sources, to a concluding examination of the prospects for
their integration into national and international networks and the outlook for renewable energy, this book provides a valuable insight into prospects for the renewables.

Online resources

Renewable Energy is accompanied by online resources which include:

For students:
ú Auto- marked multiple choice questions to accompany each chapter
ú Curated links to further information and up-to-date energy statistics.

For registered adopters of the book:
ú Figures from the book: available to download for use in lectures

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Review from previous edition I have reviewed many textbooks on renewable energy and this one stands clearly above them all. It provides an excellent balance between technical content and practical application. Douglas J Reinemann, Professor of Biological Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

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Dr Stephen Peake is senior lecturer in environmental technology at The Open University and fellow at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, where he leads courses on sustainability and climate leadership. Over the last 23 years, Stephen has worked on climate change in various interesting guises: as a researcher at the University of Cambridge, as a fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London (including a stint at the Shell
International Petroleum Company), as a Fonctionnaire at the International Energy Agency within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris, and as a diplomat with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn, Germany.

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