Renewable energy possesses incredible potential to change our world, from reducing global conflict, saving lives through purer air quality and on a smaller scale, reducing your home energy bill. With all this in mind, it’s no wonder that renewable energy sources are an inspiration of hope for many people across the world. This selection of books ranges from the academic to the beginners guide, and will undoubtedly be fuel for the imagination as the potential of renewable energy is revealed. Read on for a glimpse into the future.
1) The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations
Daniel Yergin is a Pulitzer-winning author whose previous works The Prize and The Quest brought together geopolitics and energy in a revealing exploration of how these worlds are tangled in contemporary society. His latest book is a cutting edge account of how these forces, as well as Covid-19’s disrupting influence, are reshaping the world. Renewables are a huge battleground for geopolitical wrangling, as Yergin articulates in this powerful read.
2) Renewable-Energy-Driven Future: Technologies, Modelling, Applications, Sustainability and Policies
Subheaded Technologies, Modelling, Applications, Sustainability and Policies, Ren’s 600-plus page tome brings together all the contemporary research on renewables to deliver an essential account of how the coming years will be determined by renewable technology. Any new student or veteran researcher of the renewable industry will find the essays herein an essential tool in understanding and interpreting the trends in renewable energy.
3) Wind Power and Public Engagement, By Giuseppe Pellegrini-Masini
Wind power possesses magnificent potential in the renewable sector, yet turbine development projects are often rife with public objections and misunderstanding. Pellegrini-Masini’s exploration of how local communities respond to development potential is a strong work in the school of social science and anyone interested in wind power and related technologies will benefit from his analysis of how public engagement is as essential as any technological element in this industry.
4) Social Movements against Wind Power in Canada and Germany, By Andrea Bues
Following on from Giuseppe Pellegrini-Masini’s overview of how community responses are influencing the wind industry comes this fascinating work by Andrea Bues, exploring and contrasting transatlantic approaches to the opposition to wind power. By focusing on the pathways this opposition takes in Germany and Canada, Bues reveals the powerful trends that resist wind technology, and how environmentalists can overcome these forces.
5) The Fully Charged Guide to Electric Vehicles & Clean Energy
Llewellyn’s introduction to the potential that renewable energy contains is a powerful account of a utopic future. This book is packed with expert accounts of how clean energy from a variety of sources is coming to power our world, and how everything from air quality to life expectancy can be improved by increasing our reliance on renewables. “Llewellyn’s account is optimistic, verging on utopic, and will inspire the average reader to reconfigure their relationship with the energy world,” says Mary Larson, renewable energy expert at Academized. “This is a powerful read for our current climate.”
6) Electric Cars and Endless Wars: Realizing the potential of renewable energy resources
Hinrichs charts the relationship between global violence and fossil fuels in this book, expertly demonstrating that pursuit of oil has driven conflict across the world for over a century. The potential, then, that renewable energy poses not just for our climate and environment but also for our social and political world is huge. Hinrich explores the latest technological advances in renewable energy and provides an account of the implications of these technologies on our political world, forecasting a peaceful future.
7) Solar Electricity Basics – Revised and Updated 2nd Edition: Powering Your Home or Office with Solar Energy
Now in its second edition, Chiras’s introduction to solar electricity and how any individual can harness it for power in a domestic setting is an eminently practical book for anyone interested in pursuing this technology. “The energy of the sun is there for the taking,” says Claudia S. Clements, journalist at Ukwritings. “Chiras demonstrates that anyone with a rudimentary understanding of science and electronics can take advantage of current technology to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, as well as their energy bills.”
Renewable energy is synonymous with the future, and every book on this list will reveal the utopian potential of renewables. Air quality, global war and even your energy bills are the subject of these books. One thing is certain, renewables cannot be ignored.
Bio – Katherine Rundell is a science journalist with a keen interest in renewable energy. She lives in the Pacific Northwest and loves exploring the Cascade Mountain Range to marvel at nature’s power.