This four-volume set, edited by a leading expert in the field, brings together in one collection a series of papers that have been fundamental to the development of renewable energy as a defined discipline. Some of the papers were first published many years ago, but they remain classics in their fields and retain their relevance to the understanding of current issues. The papers have been selected with the assistance of an eminent international editorial board. The set includes a general introduction and each volume is introduced by a new overview essay, placing the selected papers in context. The range of subject matter is considerable, including coverage of all the main renewable technologies, the fundamental principles by which they function, and the issues around their deployment such as planning, integration and socio-economic assessment. Overall, the set provides students, teachers and researchers, confronted with thousands of journal articles, book chapters and grey literature stretching back decades, with a ready-made selection of and commentary on the most important key writings in renewable energy. It will be an essential reference for libraries concerned with energy, technology and the environment.

Renewable Energy: Prospects for Implementation contains papers that were originally commissioned by the journal Energy Policy for a series on renewable energy appearing between January 1991 to September 1992. In view of the fast-changing demands on conventional energy supply to meet environmental imperatives, it seemed timely to reproduce here a selection of those papers with a new introduction and a revised concluding chapter by the Editor of the series, Dr Tim Jackson, a research fellow with the Stockholm Environment Institute. The book is organized into four parts. The papers in Part I cover the individual renewable energy technology types from a broad perspective, addressing the technological aspects of improved power capture and conversion efficiency, but also providing a broad overview of costs, environmental aspects, and institutional factors for each technology category. Part II of this collection examines questions of feasibility and system integration. Renewables and development is the theme of Part III of the book while Part IV is dedicated to policy aspect and the development of strategies for implementation of renewable energy technologies.

"Over the next few decades, we will see a profound energy transformation as society shifts from fossil fuels to renewable resources like solar, wind, biomass. But what might a one hundred percent renewable future actually look like, and what obstacles will we face in this transition? Authors explore the practical challenges and opportunities presented by the shift to renewable energy."--Page 4 of cover.