Sustainable Energy Solutions for Climate Change |
| Stephen Bygrave reviews this new bookMark Diesendorf, Associate Professor and Deputy Director at the Institute for Environmental Studies, University of New South Wales, has a new book, Sustainable Energy Solutions for Climate Change. I’ve had the opportunity to have a quick read and it is a nice complement and addition to the Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan.
The book is divided into 3 parts; Part A focusing on basic energy concepts, Part B on the technologies and systems for energy supply (which includes a short section on transport); and Part C on the policies to transform the energy system. The energy concepts section highlights the massive changes in energy patterns since the industrial revolution and is a timely reminder of why energy remains such an important aspect of our world and also such a contributor to climate change. The section on technologies provides a useful update on the status of renewable energy, including concentrated solar thermal but also energy storage. There is a section referencing the work of Mark’s PhD student, Ben Elliston, on simulating hourly operation of the National Electricity Market (NEM), demonstrating that in 2010 renewable energy could have supplied the whole of the NEM with electricity with the same reliability as fossil-fuelled power stations. There a couple of obvious omissions — for example there is a section on Zero Carbon Britain but no reference to Zero Carbon Australia and the work of Beyond Zero Emissions. Apart from that — well worth a read, even for the converted. |
