Principles of Sustainable Energy

lable at ScienceDirect

Energy 36 (2011) 3613–3614

Contents lists avai

Energy

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate/energy

Book review

d

Title:

oi:10.1016/j.energy.2011.01.055

Principles of Sustainable Energy

“This book is one of few books that cover most of the renewable en

Prof. Moh’d A. Al-Nimr, member of EGY Book Review Panel

Every body realizes the importance of renewable energyresources in presenting a resolution for the energy crisis. Theenergy strategic plans for almost all countries raise the share ofrenewable energy in the predicted future energy needs. Raisingthe renewable energy share highlights the importance of preparingwell educated and trained engineers and technicians in differentrenewable energy sectors. Academic institutions and universitiesrecognized the importance of this issue and increase the offeredgraduate and undergraduate courses in renewable energy fields.The literature is rich in books specialized in these fields. However,many of these books concentrate on certain renewable energyresources but not on all of them. On the other hand, many booksfocus on certain aspects and features and ignore others. The litera-ture is poor in books that consider all available renewable energyresources and cover all possible aspects and features such as theirpotential, statistics, fundamentals, performance, technology,economics, etc. “Principles of Sustainable Energy”, a text bookauthored by Frank Kreith and Jan Kreider, aims to cover almost allrenewable energy resources. The book considers the physics,modeling, behavior, calculations, potential, generation, conversion,utilization, storage, technology, manufacturing, economics andmanagement of these renewable resources. The book is designedfor courses at the senior or first-year graduate level in engineeringand assumes that reader has a basic understanding of thermody-namics and heat transfer, as well as knowledge of spreadsheetsand computer skills.

The book contains 12 Chapters presented in 855 pages and pub-lished by Taylor and Francis Group in 2011.

Chapter 1 discusses role of water, food and energy in achievingsustainable development. The chapter emphasizes the interrelationbetween the social, economic, environmental and technical aspectsof the sustainability issue. The chapter presents a summary of avail-able energy resources, options of energy generation and conserva-tion, and the need to consider the financial ramifications and theenergy return on energy investment of various technologies forfuture energy generation.

Chapter 2 covers the principles and basics of engineeringeconomics to be used later in the financial evaluation of

different renewable energy resources. Economical conceptsand principles presented are the time value of money, infla-tion, societal costs, total life cycle costs and internal rate ofreturn. These concepts are general ones and not restricted toenergy systems. Regarding energy the chapter presents thelevelized cost of energy procedure and introduces a convenientmethod of estimating the energy return on energy investmentof technologies for conservation measures and generation ofenergy.

Chapter 3 presents the wind energy resource. The chapterbegins by discussing controversial issues about wind energy suchas noise and environmental impacts. A short review of the historyof wind energy technology is presented. The chapter coversthe wind characteristics, distributions, wind speed profiles and thewind speed probability profiles. Also, the chapter describes thewind turbine performance and calculations in a detailed manner.The control schemes have been reviewed and both cost issues andwind farms have been discussed.

Chapter 4 presents the biomass renewable energy resources inthe form of wastes or energy crops. The size of this resource andproperties are given in the first part. Different methods to convertbiomass to gaseous fuels have been discussed such as anaerobicdigestion and thermal gasification. Different transportation fuelsfrom biomass, such as ethanol, methanol, alcohols, etc., havebeen presented in another part. The last part of this chapter coversdifferent methods for conversion biomass to electricity such asdirect combustion.

Chapter 5 presents the fundamentals of solar radiation byconsidering the fundamentals of thermal radiation, solar timeand angles, solar radiation calculations based on analytical modelsor measured data, measurement of solar radiation and measure-ment devices.

Chapter 6 covers the photovoltaic conversion principle. Thechapter starts by describing the physical aspects of these conver-sion devices by illustrating the behavior of semiconductors, p–njunctions and the photovoltaic effect. The performances of photo-voltaic cells have been presented in details and their design hasbeen described. Special attention has been given to these cells

Book review / Energy 36 (2011) 3613–36143614

manufacturing and to the new emerging technologies andadvances in their industry.

Chapter 7 presents the domestic solar heating and cooling appli-cations. The chapter starts with describing the radiative propertiesand characteristics of materials and surfaces. The thermal perfor-mances of liquid-type flat-plate, air-type flat-plate and evacuatedtypes solar collectors are presented in the second part. The stan-dard procedure of experimental collectors testing is given in thethird part followed by calculations of heating and hot water loadsin buildings. The fourth part presents different solar water-heating systems and different methods of modeling and design ofsolar heating systems. Solar cooling based on vapor-compressionand vapor-absorption refrigeration cycles are described with theirmathematical models in another part. The last part of this chapterpresents the solar desiccant dehumidification systems.

Chapter 8 presents the utilization of solar energy in thermalpower generation and other industrial applications. Differentindustrial applications have been described. The fundamentalsand applications of parabolic solar collectors are presented indetails. Electricity generation from solar thermal power planthas been described by Rankine cycle and Stirling engines.

Chapter 9 presents the fundamentals of different passive solarheating designs and approaches in its first part. The second partdescribes fundamentalsof passive space coolingdesign fundamentalsand the third part considers the fundamentals of day lighting design.

Chapter 10 presents different energy storage methods and tech-nologies. Examples of considered technologies are mechanical,electrical, chemical and thermal.

Chapter 11 presents different ocean energy resources such asocean thermal energy with its open and close cycles, tidal energyand ocean wave energy. The mathematical models that describethese systems have been described in details.

Chapter 12 presents renewable energy applications in transpor-tation. Different types of vehicles and different alternative fuelshave been discussed.

This book is one of few books that cover most of therenewable energy resources. The adopted treatment in this bookis comprehensive in the sense that it covers the fundamental, phys-ical, theoretical, mathematical, technological, economical and envi-ronmental aspects and features of each renewable energy resource.However, few drawbacks have to be referred to. Many importantapplications have not been presented such as solar ponds, solardistillation and desalination, and nanotechnology applications insolar energy. Also, it is preferred to have a complete separatechapter about energy efficiency and conservation. Another defi-ciency in the references since the number of recent references isrelatively low.

Moh’d A. Al-Nimr*Mechanical Engineering Department, Jordan University of Science and

Technology, P.O. Box 3030, Irbid 22110, Jordan* Tel.: þ962 79 5936046; fax: þ962 27095 018.

E-mail address: malnimr@just.edu.jo

31 January 2011Available online 1 March 2011