I was motivated to write this book because I have read many books, articles and news stories that suggest that we are running out of cheap energy and the world will soon be plunged into a never-ending cycle of wars designed to secure the few remaining energy resources. The second perception about energy is that the current energy sources are destroying the environment and we have to find safer, cleaner energy sources that will allow us a better, simpler lifestyle. This is the story of energy and what I found.
Energy fuels economies and lifestyles, and if we don't have enough, then the future could be bleak. So, is the world running out of energy, and do we have to fight wars to secure enough cheap energy supplies to maintain our current lifestyle or should we be lowering our standard of living so that the world has enough energy supplies? What are the alter- natives? What is the future of energy? I will show in this book that we have plenty of energy supplies; we do not have to fight wars to maintain our lifestyle. There are some misguided politicians who think otherwise, and I hope this book will demonstrate to them the errors of their thinking.
The second and related question is: should we be developing cleaner forms of energy so that our energy sources are not destroying the environ- ment? In seeking to answer this question, I came to a surprising conclu- sion: all forms of energy have an impact on the environment. That is because energy is part of the environment. If you manipulate energy sources, you will have an impact on the environment. The more successful an energy source is, the more impact it has on the environment. I formu- lated that idea into an important principle in Chapter 1 called The Towler Principle. We do have the ability to mitigate and minimize the environmen- tal impacts, to lessen their impacts, and that should be our goal.
In examining these questions, I have tried to tell the story in simple and easily understood terms. In Chapter 2, I introduce the units used for energy, of which there are many. But they can be converted from one unit to another. In Chapter 3, I introduce the laws of thermodynamics, which are fundamental to understanding energy processes. These are not diffi- cult principles to understand, but you cannot hope to understand energy if you do not have a rudimentary knowledge of these laws.
In each chapter on specific energy sources, I not only describe how the source is used to generate energy, but also show a lot of graphs and sta- tistics to prove and illustrate my points. If this becomes too much informa- tion to absorb at once, the reader can skip to the end of the chapter where a summary of the conclusions will be found. Chapter 16 ties all these conclusions together and answers the questions raised in the book. It reaches optimistic conclusions. We have plenty of energy: we don't have to fight wars; we don't have to destroy the environment. The future is bright because we have enough energy, and we know how to access it and use it.

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

1. The History and Culture of Energy I

The Towler Principle 2

The History of Energy Use 2

The Movement to Oil 6

Summary 15

2. How Is Energy Measured 17

Hydrocarbon Fuels 23

Wood Fuels 24

Units of Power 24

3. Energy Science and Thermodynamics 27

The First Law of Thermodynamics 27

The Second Law of Thermodynamics 31

4. Environmental Issues 39

The Carbon Dioxide Issue 39

Coal 51

Oil 53

Natural Gas 53

Wind 54

Solar 55

Hydroelectric 55

Nuclear 56

5. Crude Oil 57

U.S. World Oil Production and the Peak Oil Theory 59

The U.S. Gas Supply Analogy to World Oil Production 67

New Supplies of Oil in the United States and the implications for the World Oil Market 71

The World Picture 82

The Future of Oil 87

6. Natural Gas 89

The World Picture 90

Liquefied Natural Gas 91

Natural Gas Production in the United States 100

Natural Gas Storage 110

The Price of Gas 115

State Production and Transportation of Natural Gas in USA 121

Fracture Stimulation Techniques 125

Liquid Transportation Fuels from Natural Gas 127

The Future of Natural Gas 132

7. Nuclear Energy 135

The Uranium Fuel Cycle 141

Fast Breeder Reactors 144

Uranium Reserves and Sources 146

Nuclear Power Plant Safety 151

The Three Mile Island Incident 152

The Chemobyl Disaster 152

The Fukushima-Daiichi Incident 155

Nuclear Fusion Reactors 155

The Future of Nuclear Power 159

8.Solar Power 161

Photovoltaics 164

Concentrated Solar Power 169

Solar Efficiency of CSP Installations 175

Selected Location Studies 178

Environmental Issues 182

Economics 183

The Future of Solar Energy 185

9.Wind Energy 187

Wind Energy Statistics 187

Physics and Engineering of Wind Power 189

Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Pollution 197

Land Use Issues 198

The Portsmouth Abbey Wind Turbine 201

Impact on Birds, Bats and Other Flying Wildlife 210

Impacts on People 211

Safety 211

Health and Esthetics 211

Energy Reliability 212

Energy Storage 214

Summary 214

10. Hydroelectricity 215

Hydroelectric Basics 216

The Columbia River Hydroelectric System 218

The Grand Coulee Dam 224

The Other Columbia River Dams 228

Pumped Hydroelectric Storage 230

Summary 235

11. Geothermal Energy 237

The Geysers Dry Steam Geothermal Power Plant 243

Other Geothermal Applications 244

Enhanced Geothermal Systems 245

Environmental Issues 253

The Future of Geothermal Energy 255

12. Ethanol, Biodiesel, and Biomass 257

Ethanol Production 258

Fuel Economy of Ethanol 261

Biodiesel Production 261

Direct Conversion of Woody Biomass into Gasoline,Diesel and Other Liquid Fuels 267

Environmental Issues 270

The Future of Biomass 270

13. Coal and Clean Coal Technologies 273

World Coal Production 274

U.S. Coal Production 279

Australian Coal Production 280

Chinese Coal Production 284

Health, Safety, and Environmental Issues in Coal Use 286

Clean Coal Technologies 287

Coal to Liquids Technologies 291

Underground Coal Gasification 296

The Future of Coal 298

14. Carbon Capture and Storage 301

Carbon Emissions 302

Phase Behavior of Carbon Dioxide 304

Carbon Capture Methods 306

Carbon Storage Concepts 307

Carbon Storage Projects 309

The Future of Carbon Capture and Storage 311

15. Hydrogen 313

Hydrogen Technologies 313

The Hydrogen Economy 316

The Future of Hydrogen and the Hydrogen Economy 330

16. What Is the Future of Energy? An Energy Policy for the United States 335

Natural Gas 337

Coal 339

Nuclear Power 340

Hydroelectric 341

Wind 341

Solar 342

Geothermal 342

Oil 342

U.S. Energy Policy Development 343

Appendix A The Carrot Cycle 345

Appendix B Hubbert's Peak Oil Theory from Chapter 5 349

Bibliography 357

Glossary 359

Index 367

Brian F. Towier Extracting energy from the environment always involves some type of impact on the environment. Based on this principle, The Future of Energy discusses the sources, technologies, and trade-offs involved in meeting the world's energy needs. Historical, scientific, and technical backgrounds set the stage for discussions on a wide range of energy sources, including conventional fossil .fuels such as oil, gas, and coal, as welt as emerging renewable energy sources such as solar. wind, geothermal, and biofuels. From this text, readers will learn that there are no truly "green" energy sources and understand the advantages and disadvantages involved in using each energy source.

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