By: Greg Pahl

Paperback

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Over 90 percent of US power generation comes from large, centralized, highly polluting, nonrenewable sources of energy. It is delivered through long, brittle transmission lines, and then is squandered through inefficiency and waste. But it doesn't have to be that way. Communities can indeed produce their own local, renewable energy.

Power from the People explores how homeowners, co-ops, nonprofit institutions, governments, and businesses are putting power in the hands of local communities through distributed energy programs and energy-efficiency measures.

Using examples from around the nation - and occasionally from around the world - Greg Pahl explains how to plan, organize, finance, and launch community-scale energy projects that harvest energy from sun, wind, water, and earth. He also explains why community power is a necessary step on the path to energy security and community resilience - particularly as we face peak oil, cope with climate change, and address the need to transition to a more sustainable future.

This book - the second in the Chelsea Green Publishing Company and Post Carbon Institute's Community Resilience Series - also profiles numerous communitywide initiatives that can be replicated elsewhere.

"Booklist"-"Pahl's alternative energy guidebook, "The Citizen-Powered Energy Handbook" (2007), urged homeowners to cut their dependence on fossil fuels and looked at communities, such as those in Asheville, North Carolina, and Sweden, where locally produced, renewable energy has already made a significant impact. With its focus on U.S.-based technologies and resources, this follow-up volume offers brass-tacks practical advice on the planning, organizing, and financing angles of implementing alternative power without waiting for big government to pitch in. In 14 impressively detailed and inspiring chapters, Pahl explains why our current reliance on fossil fuels is unsustainable and provides concrete how and where examples of coops and neighborhoods in states from Oregon to Vermont, in which such energy sources as solar, wind, and geothermal are now supplementing and even supplanting conventional power. Along with an extensive guide to grass-roots power associations and online resources, Pahl gives sound advice on how individuals can conserve energy. For any private citizen or community looking to cut the cord from corporate utilities, Pahl's manual delivers a cornucopia of ideas."

Foreword	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. xiii
Setting the Stage
Energy and Our Communities	p. 1
Conservation and Relocalization	p. 23
Rethinking Energy	p. 35
Individual Energy Resilience
Your Household's Energy Resilience	p. 49
Community Energy Resilience
Community Energy	p. 71
Solar	p. 100
Wind	p. 113
Hydroelectricity	p. 128
Biomass	p. 143
Biogas	p. 158
Liquid Biofuels	p. 172
Geothermal	p. 187
Exceptional Community Energy Initiatives	p. 202
A Call to Action
Be Prepared	p. 219
Resources	p. 226
Endnotes	p. 234
Glossary	p. 243
Bibliography	p. 249
Index	p. 251
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

ISBN: 9781603584098
ISBN-10: 1603584099
Series: A Community resilience Guide
Audience: General
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 259
Published: 13th August 2012
Dimensions (cm): 22.7 x 15.4  x 2.2
Weight (kg): 0.472