Renewable Energy: A User's Guide

Now updated, a guide reviewing the range of currently available renewable technologies that can provide energy as heat and electricity for homes, businesses, and industry, while saving harmful emissions, energy, and money

Every day there are news reports that highlight spiraling energy costs, accelerating energy consumption, serious concerns over fuel security, and fears that oil production may soon decline, all set against a background of global warming and the devastating impact of climate change. The author of this book emphasizes that we need to use renewable energy technologies on a much wider scale to produce heat and electricity, and explains that if action is taken immediately it could make an enormous difference in helping to meet CO2 reduction targets. He demonstrates how by installing a renewable energy technology in your home, you will be taking a step towards reducing your carbon footprint and helping to save the planet. The technologies covered are solar energy; heat pumps; biomass fuels such as wood, waste, and even specially grown crops; wind power; hydroelectricity; and such emerging technologies such as geothermal, wave, and tidal power.

Andy McCrea MBE has worked as a power engineer and manager within the energy industry for more than years. Over the last 20 years, his work has focused on the environmental side of the industry. Since 2003, he has been the director of Action Renewables, a government-funded private company, established to promote the rapid development and uptake of renewable energy. Dr. McCrea is a Chartered Engineer, a Chartered Environmentalist, and a Fellow of the Energy Institute.