Based on close to two hundred interviews with decision-makers, government officials, and industry stakeholders, Karoline Steinbacher presents the first in-depth enquiry into Germany’s efforts of “exporting” its sustainable energy policies. The book closes the empirical gap in understanding how Germany’s leadership influences the transfer of renewable energy policy to three heterogeneous cases, namely Morocco, South Africa, and California.

This dazzling introductory textbook encompasses the full range of today's important renewable energy technologies. Solar thermal, photovoltaic, wind, hydro, biomass and geothermal energy receive balanced treatment with one exciting and informative chapter devoted to each. As well as a complete overview of these state-of-the-art technologies, the chapters provide: clear analysis on their development potentials; an evaluation of the economic aspects involved; concrete guidance for practical implementation; how to reduce your own energy waste. If we do not act now to stop climate change, the consequences will be catastrophic. The current world situation is demonstrated here with the aid of full-colour figures and photographs, data diagrams and simple calculations and results. A multiplicity of impressive examples from countries across the globe show international ‘alternative’ energy in action. With its easy-to-read approach, this is an essential textbook for students on renewable energy courses, also environment and sustainability courses. Planners, operators, financers and consultants will find this an excellent manual for planning and realizing climate protection. Furthermore, this book makes great background reading for energy workers, designers, politicians and journalists, and anyone who is interested in the topic of climate change. Looking for further study? Visit the complimentary website; it hosts many useful related internet sites: www.wiley.com/go/quaschning_renewable

This book outlines how Germans convinced their politicians to pass laws allowing citizens to make their own energy, even when it hurt utility companies to do so. It traces the origins of the Energiewende movement in Germany from the Power Rebels of Schönau to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s shutdown of eight nuclear power plants following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. The authors explore how, by taking ownership of energy efficiency at a local level, community groups are key actors in the bottom-up fight against climate change. Individually, citizens might install solar panels on their roofs, but citizen groups can do much more: community wind farms, local heat supply, walkable cities and more. This book offers evidence that the transition to renewables is a one-time opportunity to strengthen communities and democratize the energy sector – in Germany and around the world.

This book shows how promoting clean energy technologies - from solar panels to electric cars - can end human-induced climate change.

The world is currently undergoing an historic energy transition, driven by increasingly stringent decarbonisation policies and rapid advances in low-carbon technologies. The large-scale shift to low-carbon energy is disrupting the global energy system, impacting whole economies, and changing the political dynamics within and between countries. This open access book, written by leading energy scholars, examines the economic and geopolitical implications of the global energy transition, from both regional and thematic perspectives. The first part of the book addresses the geopolitical implications in the world’s main energy-producing and energy-consuming regions, while the second presents in-depth case studies on selected issues, ranging from the geopolitics of renewable energy, to the mineral foundations of the global energy transformation, to governance issues in connection with the changing global energy order. Given its scope, the book will appeal to researchers in energy, climate change and international relations, as well as to professionals working in the energy industry.

The Role of Public Participation in Energy Transitions provides a conceptual and empirical approach to stakeholder and citizen involvement in the ongoing energy transition conversation, focusing on projects surrounding energy conversion and efficiency, reducing energy demand, and using new forms of renewable energy sources. Sections review and contrast different approaches to citizen involvement, discuss the challenges of inclusive participation in complex energy policymaking, and provide conceptual foundations for the empirical case studies that constitute the second part of the book. The book is a valuable resource for academics in the field of energy planning and policymaking, as well as practitioners in energy governance, energy and urban planners and participation specialists.

In this ready reference, top academic researchers, industry players and government officers join forces to develop commercial concepts for the transition from current nuclear or fossil fuel-based energy to renewable energy systems within a limited time span. They take into account the latest science and technology, including an analysis of the feasibility and impact on the environment, economy and society. In so doing, they discuss such complex topics as electrical and gas grids, fossil power plants and energy storage technologies. The contributions also include robust, conceivable and breakthrough technologies that will be viable and implementable by 2020.