The Dirty Energy Dilemma
Encyclopedia
The Dirty Energy Dilemma: What’s Blocking Clean Power in the United States is a 2008 book by academic Benjamin K. Sovacool
, published by Praeger. In the book, Sovacool explores problems with the current U.S. electricity system and ways to overcome them.
s and nuclear power
reactors. He identifies "The Big Four Energy Challenges" as rising fossil fuel costs, increasing pollution, inefficient and brittle transmission networks, as well as widespread system vulnerability to natural disasters, sabotage, and financial manipulations. "The Big Four Clean Solutions" of renewable energy
, efficient energy use
, distributed generation, and combined heat and power
will do a better job of providing needed energy while protecting consumers and the planet.
for Best Book in the "Ecology/Environment/Sustainability/Green Values" category.
Benjamin K. Sovacool
Benjamin K. Sovacool is a Visiting Associate Professor at Vermont Law School and founding Director of the Energy Justice Program at their Institute for Energy and Environment. He was formerly an Assistant Professor and Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore.Sovacool's research...
, published by Praeger. In the book, Sovacool explores problems with the current U.S. electricity system and ways to overcome them.
Challenges and solutions
In the first part of the book, Sovacool explores the problems with the current system of large-scale electricity generation being used in the United States, powered by fossil fuelFossil fuel
Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years...
s and nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
reactors. He identifies "The Big Four Energy Challenges" as rising fossil fuel costs, increasing pollution, inefficient and brittle transmission networks, as well as widespread system vulnerability to natural disasters, sabotage, and financial manipulations. "The Big Four Clean Solutions" of renewable energy
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
, efficient energy use
Efficient energy use
Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the goal of efforts to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a home allows a building to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a comfortable temperature...
, distributed generation, and combined heat and power
Combined Heat and Power
Combined Heat and Power may refer to:* Cogeneration* Combined Heat and Power Solar...
will do a better job of providing needed energy while protecting consumers and the planet.
Barriers
Sovacool suggests that the barriers to clean energy adoption are institutional, not technological, and he sees no role for nuclear power in a clean energy transition.Award
The Dirty Energy Dilemma won the 2009 Nautilus Silver AwardNautilus Award
Nautilus Award is a Polish science fiction and fantasy award created by Robert J. Szmidt of the Science Fiction magazine. The award is named after the cephalopods of that name ....
for Best Book in the "Ecology/Environment/Sustainability/Green Values" category.
See also
- Alternative Energy: Political, Economic, and Social FeasibilityAlternative Energy: Political, Economic, and Social FeasibilityAlternative Energy: Political, Economic, and Social Feasibility , a 2006 book by Christopher A. Simon, discusses the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy...
- Clean EdgeClean EdgeClean Edge is a leading U.S. research and publishing firm that helps companies, investors, and policymakers understand and profit from clean technologies...
- Clean Energy TrendsClean Energy TrendsClean Energy Trends is a series of reports by Clean Edge which examine markets for solar, wind, geothermal, fuel cells, biofuels, and other clean energy technologies. Since the publication of the first Clean Energy Trends report in 2002, Clean Edge has provided anannual snapshot of both the global...
- Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable EnergyGreenhouse Solutions with Sustainable EnergyGreenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy is a 2007 book by Australian academic Mark Diesendorf. The book puts forward a setof policies and strategies for implementing the most promising clean energy technologies by all spheres of government, business and community organisations...
- The Clean Tech RevolutionThe Clean Tech RevolutionThe Clean Tech Revolution is a 2007 book by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder, who say that commercializing clean technologies is a profitable enterprise that is moving steadily into mainstream business...
Further reading
- Benjamin K. Sovacool and Marilyn A. Brown (Eds.) (2007). Energy and American Society: Thirteen Myths, Springer.
- Miguel MendonçaMiguel MendoncaMiguel Mendonça is a writer, focussing on sustainability. He studied forestry, landscape management, journalism, geography, history, social science and environmental ethics. He is most associated with work on feed-in tariffs, a renewable energy policy...
, David Jacobs and Benjamin K. Sovacool, (2009). Powering the Green Economy: The Feed-In Tariff Handbook, Earthscan. - Benjamin K. Sovacool (2010). Climate Change and Energy Security: A Global Overview of Technology and Policy Options, MIT PressMIT PressThe MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts .-History:...
.