Our Renewable Energy Future

Our Renewable Energy Future delves into the clean energy technology evolution and where our energy system is going. While the book's foundation is technology innovation, it brings a unique perspective that technology alone is not what has brought about the explosive growth of renewable energy and offers fresh insights into how technology, economics, social dynamics, policy, and geopolitics are forces affecting our energy future. This book is a culmination of Dr Arent's lifelong passion for energy, sustainable development, and renewable energy technology. It covers the journey of evolving technology, economics, political economy and geopolitics of clean energy over the last 40 years and provides insights for the coming decades. From a technology perspective, the book traces the arc of recent innovations and synthesizes innovations across multiple interacting perspectives into a description of Our Renewable Energy Future.

Contents:

• Preamble and Thesis

• Prologue

• About the Author

• Acknowledgements

• List of Figures

• Abbreviations

• Introduction

• Phase I: Promises — The Technologies of Tomorrow (1950s-1980s):

  • Key Themes
  • Technology 'Discovery' and Very Early Niche Markets
  • Factors

• Phase II: Inching Along — Early Commercialization (1990s-2000):

  • Key Themes
  • Factors

• Phase III: From Problem Child to Problem Solver — The Era of Exponential Growth (2000-2020):

  • Key Themes
  • Factors
  • Economics
  • Policy Dynamics

• Phase IV: Dominance — From Petro to Electro (2020+):

  • Key Themes
  • The Convergence of Factors
  • Clean Electricity is the Backbone of Our Clean-Energy Economy
  • Economics/Finance: From Competitive to Mainstream Policy/Regulatory (Local, National, and Global)
  • Knowledge ((Models, Tools & Data for Planning & Operations and Business Models)
  • Social Willingness
  • Institutional Willingness and Political Economy Dynamics

• Phase V: Beyond 2050 — A Global Net-Zero Energy Economy (2050+):

  • Final Reflections and Our Call to Action

• Appendices:

• List of Publications by the Author (as of June 2023)

  Solar Energy: Can It Be Used Effectively?

• References

• Index

Readership: Academia: undergraduate and graduate students, research staff. Industry: energy sector, vehicles/transportation, oil and gas. NGOs and governments: policy and program leaders, advocates. Consultancies: practitioners, consultants, advisors. Lay readers interested in our collective energy future.
Key Features:

• Explores the climate mitigation perspective, and the necessary fundamental transformation of our energy system toward one that does not emit greenhouse gases or have detrimental environmental impacts on land, air, water, and people
• Builds on topical issues, particularly the energy crisis as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the use of energy as a strategic, economic and political weapon
• Provides reflections from the 1970s oil embargo and prior "energy crises" which were in fact the result of political actions, not lack of molecules, and offers a stark reminder of the potential weaponization of energy and an enhanced recognition of its critical role in life
• Emphasizes the need to rethink globalization from a geopolitical and economic standpoint