| | |  | Renewable Energy | Home » » Energy Studies, Second Edition | | | | | | | Product Promotions: | | | | | Description: | | How is the future world energy demand to be met? The rates of use of the fossil fuels - coal, oil and natural gas - are increasing all over the world. The remaining stocks are finite and are not renewable. This text considers the various options of renewable energy, including water energy, wind energy and biomass, solar thermal and solar photovoltaic energy. And should the nuclear option remain open? The work examines the environmental implications and economic viability of all fossil and renewable sources, introduces more distant future options of geothermal energy and nuclear fusion, and discusses a near-future energy strategy. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| William Shepherd | | Hardcover:
| 516 pages | | Publisher:
| World Scientific Publishing Company | | Publication Date:
| April 22, 2003 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 1860943225 | | Product Length:
| 9.96 inches | | Product Width:
| 6.69 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.32 inches | | Product Weight:
| 2.18 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.8 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.6 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.6 inches | | Package Weight:
| 2.15 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 4 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 4 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 6 found the following review helpful:
 Not a Good ResourceSep 16, 2007
By DTG
"dtg9000"
I can not recommend this book as a stand-alone, useful resource to learn about energy. It may be useful as a "starting point", provided the reader or instructor has the will and ability to correct its faults.
1. It is too far out of date. A new edition is badly needed. First, statistical data only goes up through 2000, which renders the data almost irrelevant UNLESS you update data from current sources. This is actually easy to do, and to the book's credit it provides source references which are still available today on-line. Due to its age, it is silent on the huge impact of China's growth on energy trends since 2000, there are only a couple of paragraphs on ethanol, and it dismisses Canada's oil sands reserves as "not commercially viable". With the climb in oil prices during the last few years, much of its economic discussions are no longer relevant.
Second, it relies upon references from around 1980 when discussing several technologies. I don't believe that 20+ year-old references belong in a book published about current technology in 2002. As a result, the book ends up discussing some technologies that simply are not relevant today, or discussing them as they were envisioned in 1980.
2. There are an unacceptable number of administrative errors. MANY table and figure references in the text are wrong (e.g., "Table 3-2 shows that..." when in fact it's Table 3-5). Questions at the end of the chapter refer to the incorrect tables. ANSWERS in the back of the book are WRONG at times. I even found one table reference when I could not find the appropriate table anywhere in the book. This goes beyond being out-of-date....it's just down-right sloppy.
3. It's factually wrong far too many times on issues that are not related to being out-of-date. It makes me worry about what other factual errors I'm missing. A few examples: 1) A simple calculation in Chapter 2 is off by an order of magnitude. 2) Chapter 13 defines ethanol fermentation as an aerobic process, rather than anaerobic. 3) The answer key suggests mandatory catalytic converters as a means of reducing carbon dioxide from automobiles, when in fact catalytic converters do nothing to reduce carbon dioxide. 4) It states that "the Three Mile Island plant is no longer in use" when in fact its undamaged reactor is still in use.
I have a feeling that there are no further editions planned for this book....the 2nd edition just seems to update a few charts from the US EIA and the BP statistical review of energy, and there's a lazy feel about it. Some historical material is ok - that won't change. But a new edition needs a serious going-over and updating. I do think that there needs to be a good, concise, organized survey book of energy technologies. Other books I've reviewed are excellent, but they are not as "tight" as I was hoping this one would be. Without an updated edition soon, this book will be utterly useless.
P.S.: How does Dr. Jackson above get 2 votes? I feel as if I should write 2 or 3 identical reviews now so that the overall average rating gets pulled down where it belongs......
1 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Oil, Gas, Coal, Wind, Waves, Solar, Nuclear, Geothermal....Apr 11, 2003
By Dr. M. Jackson
Energy Studies (W. Shepherd and D.W. Shepherd) is a
>>Comprehensive and very readable<< review of the state of WORLD ENERGY RESOURCES,
both old (Oil, Natural Gas, Coal)
and new (Solar, Nuclear, etc).Did you know:
- Britain could supply 15% of all energy needs with Windfarms?
- The USA will run out of oil in 8 yrs if it stops importing?
- Australia holds the world's greatest Uranium deposits?
- They've been trying for 50 years to build a Fusion reactor?
- Get up to speed with probably THE most important issue of the 21st Century, the decreasing supply and increasing demand for Energy Resources.
2 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Oil, Gas, Coal, Wind, Waves, Solar, Nuclear, Geothermal....Apr 12, 2003
By Dr. M. Jackson
Comprehensive but very readable review of World Energy Resources both old (Oil, Gas, Coal) and new (Wind, Solar, Nuclear). Gets you up to speed on one of the most important issues of the 21st century - the dwindling resources and increasing demand for Fuel and Energy.
0 of 3 found the following review helpful:
No problemsNov 05, 2009
By Timothy L. Welle
I returned this because I was trying to buy the next edition and somehow went through with this one.
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