How solar could spark a clean-energy transition through transformative innovation—creative financing, revolutionary technologies, and flexible energy systems. Solar energy, once a niche application for a limited market, has become the cheapest and fastest-growing power source on earth. What's more, its potential is nearly limitless—every hour the sun beams down more energy than the world uses in a year. But in Taming the Sun, energy expert Varun Sivaram warns that the world is not yet equipped to harness erratic sunshine to meet most of its energy needs. And if solar's current surge peters out, prospects for replacing fossil fuels and averting catastrophic climate change will dim. Innovation can brighten those prospects, Sivaram explains, drawing on firsthand experience and original research spanning science, business, and government. Financial innovation is already enticing deep-pocketed investors to fund solar projects around the world, from the sunniest deserts to the poorest villages. Technological innovation could replace today's solar panels with coatings as cheap as paint and employ artificial photosynthesis to store intermittent sunshine as convenient fuels. And systemic innovation could add flexibility to the world's power grids and other energy systems so they can dependably channel the sun's unreliable energy. Unleashing all this innovation will require visionary public policy: funding researchers developing next-generation solar technologies, refashioning energy systems and economic markets, and putting together a diverse clean energy portfolio. Although solar can't power the planet by itself, it can be the centerpiece of a global clean energy revolution. A Council on Foreign Relations Book

Managing Global Warming: An Interface of Technology and Human Issues discusses the causes of global warming, the options available to solve global warming problems, and how each option can be realistically implemented. It is the first book based on scientific content that presents an overall reference on both global warming and its solutions in one volume. Containing authoritative chapters written by scientists and engineers working in the field, each chapter includes the very latest research and references on the potential impact of wind, solar, hydro, geo-engineering and other energy technologies on climate change. With this wide ranging set of topics and solutions, engineers, professors, leaders and policymakers will find this to be a valuable handbook for their research and work. - Presents chapters that are accompanied by an easy reference summary - Includes up-to-date options and technical solutions for global warming through color imagery - Provides up-to-date information as presented by a collection of renowned global experts

This book focuses on solar-energy-based renewable energy systems and discusses the generation of electric power using solar photovoltaics, as well as some new techniques, such as solar towers, for both residential and commercial needs. Such systems have played an important role in the move towards low-emission and sustainable energy sources. The book covers a variety of applications, such as solar water heaters, solar air heaters, solar drying, nanoparticle-based direct absorption solar systems, solar volumetric receivers, solar-based cooling systems, solar-based food processing and cooking, efficient buildings using solar energy, and energy storage for solar thermal systems. Given its breadth of coverage, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers, students, and professionals alike.

Comprehensive Renewable Energy is the only multi-volume reference work of its type at a time when renewable energy sources are seen increasingly as realistic alternatives to fossil fuels. As the majority of information published for the target audience is currently available via a wide range of journals, seeking relevant information (be that experimental, theoretical, and computational aspects of either a fundamental or applied nature) can be a time-consuming and complicated process. Comprehensive Renewable Energy is arranged according to the most important themes in the field

Semiannual, with semiannual and annual indexes. References to all scientific and technical literature coming from DOE, its laboratories, energy centers, and contractors. Includes all works deriving from DOE, other related government-sponsored information, and foreign nonnuclear information. Arranged under 39 categories, e.g., Biomedical sciences, basic studies; Biomedical sciences, applied studies; Health and safety; and Fusion energy. Entry gives bibliographical information and abstract. Corporate, author, subject, report number indexes.

This book provides a broad overview on the different aspects of solar energy, with a focus on photovoltaics, which is the technology that allows light energy to be converted into electric energy. Renewable energy sources have become increasingly popular in recent years, and solar is one of the most adaptable and attractive types – from solar farms to support the National Grid to roof panels/tiles used for solar thermal heating systems, and small solar garden lights. Written by Delft University researchers, Solar Energy uniquely covers both the physics of photovoltaic (PV) cells and the design of PV systems for real-life applications, from a concise history of solar cells components and location issues of current systems. The book is designed to make this complicated subject accessible to all, and is packed with fascinating graphs and charts, as well as useful exercises to cement the topics covered in each chapter. Solar Energy outlines the fundamental principles of semiconductor solar cells, as well as PV technology: crystalline silicon solar cells, thin-film cells, PV modules, and third-generation concepts. There is also background on PV systems, from simple stand-alone to complex systems connected to the grid. This is an invaluable reference for physics students, researchers, industrial engineers and designers working in solar energy generation, as well those with a general interest in renewable energy.