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Switching Off

Meeting Our Energy Needs in A Constrained Future

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Authors:
  1. Patrick Moriarty

    1. Department of Design, Caulfield Campus, Monash University, Caulfield East, Australia

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  2. Damon Honnery

    1. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Australia

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  • Provides a perspective on global energy use, its past and present, and its increasingly uncertain future
  • Reviews the prospects of renewable energy, demonstrating that deep energy reductions will be needed
  • Uses an Earth System Science approach to interconnect the various energy challenges our Earth faces

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Energy (BRIEFSENERGY)

Part of the book sub series: Energy Analysis (ENERGYANALYS)

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Table of contents (5 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-viii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction to Global Energy Challenges

    • Patrick Moriarty, Damon Honnery
    Pages 1-13

  3. The Problems with Tech Fixes

    • Patrick Moriarty, Damon Honnery
    Pages 15-33

  4. The Limits of Renewable Energy

    • Patrick Moriarty, Damon Honnery
    Pages 35-54

  5. Future Energy

    • Patrick Moriarty, Damon Honnery
    Pages 55-71

  6. Discussion and Conclusions

    • Patrick Moriarty, Damon Honnery
    Pages 73-90
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Keywords

About this book

The book is about global energy use, its past and present, and its increasingly uncertain future. It lists the various ecological problems facing our planet, not just climate change, and how their gravity has been underestimated. It briefly looks at the various solutions, apart from renewable energy, proposed for solving the problems our present energy use raises, including solar radiation management, carbon dioxide removal, nuclear energy, and energy efficiency. Renewable energy (RE) is seen by many as the panacea for a variety of environmental challenges, and with the New Green Deal, even as a means of accelerating economic growth. The book critically examines the prospects for RE. It concludes that although it is essential that the world shifts to RE, not only will the ecologically sustainable energy from all RE sources likely fall well short of even present global energy use, but the very short time frame left for effective action means that RE cannot be more than of minor help. Hence, deep energy reductions will be needed, especially in high-income OECD countries. The book uses an Earth Systems Science approach, which is necessary because of the interconnection between the various challenges our Earth faces. It aims to combine the latest findings from a diverse array of biophysical as well as socioeconomic sciences to uncover the increasingly constrained energy options we will encounter.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Design, Caulfield Campus, Monash University, Caulfield East, Australia

    Patrick Moriarty

  • Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Australia

    Damon Honnery

About the authors

Patrick Moriarty is currently an adjunct associate professor in the department of design at Monash University Caulfield. He taught civil engineering at Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology from 1971 to 1976 and carried out field research on low-cost housing in Tanzania. From 1977 to 2009, he taught and researched in the civil and mechanical engineering departments at Monash, and more recently in the Department of Industrial Design. His research interests include urban land use and transport, alternative transport fuels, and renewable energy more generally. An important part of this research has been the climate change implications of different fuels/energy sources for transport and electricity generation.

Damon Honnery is a professor in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and the deputy dean (operations) of the engineering faculty at Monash University. His research interests cover a broad range of topics including energy systems, climate change mitigation, and transport. He jointly directs the laboratory for turbulence research in aerospace and combustion in which much of his fundamental experimentally based research is undertaken on high-speed multiphase flows and supersonic jets and engines. He was a lead author in energy systems in the IPCC fifth report.


Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Switching Off

  • Book Subtitle: Meeting Our Energy Needs in A Constrained Future

  • Authors: Patrick Moriarty, Damon Honnery

  • Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Energy

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0767-8

  • Publisher: Springer Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Energy, Energy (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-19-0766-1Published: 29 March 2022

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-19-0767-8Published: 29 March 2022

  • Series ISSN: 2191-5520

  • Series E-ISSN: 2191-5539

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VIII, 90

  • Number of Illustrations: 14 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Renewable and Green Energy, Ecology, Energy Policy, Economics and Management

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