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Design High-Performance Alternative Energy Systems for Buildings.
A comprehensive reference for architects and engineers, this GreenSource book provides practical design and installation guidelines for some of the most commercially viable alternative energy technologies. Construction materials, system deployment, typical installations, and environmental impact are covered.
Alternative Energy Systems in Building Design includes information on LEED design, energy conservation, and solar power financing and return on investment. Power purchase agreements (PPAs) and national and international carbon cap and trade are also discussed. Valuable appendices contain detailed design data tables and certified equipment listings.
Alternative Energy Systems in Building Design covers:
- Solar power system physics and technologies.
- California solar initiative program.
- Energy conservation.
- Passive heating solar technologies.
- Fuel cell technology.
- Wind energy technologies.
- Ocean energy technologies.
- Hydroelectric and micro-hydro turbine power.
- Geothermal energy.
- Biofuel, biogas, and thermal depolymerization technologies.
- Fission- and fusion-type nuclear power.
- Air pollution abatement.
From the Introduction
In the coming decades, the alternative energy technology industries will undergo unprecedented growth and will represent a significant component of the U.S. gross national product. The replacement of conventional fossil fuel and nuclear fission energy resources by renewable-energy sources will mandate that industries, academia, and research institutions provide immediate technological solutions to curb global environmental pollution. To mitigate global environmental and atmospheric pollution and to accelerate technological growth, it is imperative that international academia keep up with industry by educating carrier professionals to meet these imminent challenges.
In the very near future, global economies will face enormous challenges that they will need to resolve, increasing the ever-growing need for ecologically friendly renewable-energy resources. Despite its status as the economic bastion and technological leader of the free world and the largest atmospheric polluter of our planet, the United States has in the past few decades totally neglected the economic promotion of key alternative energy technologies such as solar and wind energy power generation. Even though both these technologies were invented in the United States, the nation has fallen far behind all developing countries, including Japan, Germany, and, soon, China.
Some of the most compelling factors supporting the promotion of alternative energy studies are discussed below. They indicate that alternative energy technologies will come to represent billions of dollars of new markets in the United States and around the world. A few highlights of the alternative energy industry, covered by the Renewable Energy Laboratories and the American Solar Electric Power Association, are as follows:
- By 2020, California's installed photovoltaic capacity is expected to increase 30- to 40-fold, at an average of 36 percent a year.
- Solar power generation, by 2020, is expected to provide approximately 10-17 percent of the electricity in California, as well as 3-6 percent of electricity in the United States.
- Over the next 3-7 years, California's unsubsidized solar energy cost to consumers is expected to compete with the cost of with grid power.
- Since 1970, the price of solar photovoltaic power has decreased 100-fold.
- Currently, the U.S. solar industry employs 3000 men and women. By 2020, this figure is estimated to exceed 150,000.
- By 2020, the solar photovoltaic industry is estimated to be worth close to $27 billion per year.
- The national goal of the United States is to meet 10 percent peak power by 2030, or the equivalent of 180 million barrels of oil per year.
- State-by-state analysis shows that U.S. photovoltaic grid-connected potential in 2010 will be 2900 MW/year, and solar power will be reduced to $2.00-$2.50 per installed watt, representing a $6.6 billion business.
- Residential rooftop space available could accommodate 710,000 MW of solar electric power.
- The Pacific and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States will account for 52 percent of solar power installation.
- California has the potential to accommodate 40 percent of the total building rooftop solar power market in the United States.
- Projections of global solar power demand for 2020 indicate that solar power energy will be in parity with grid energy.
- By 2020, global solar power production is expected to increase from 10 to 300 GW, an investment that will represent approximately $500 billion.
- Over the next decade, 20-40 GW of solar power installed globally would provide 15 percent of the annual power consumed.
- Global polysilicon production capacity is estimated to triple within the next 5 years. The cost of silicon ingot production may drop by as much as 50-60 percent.
- In California, principal electric service providers are undertaking measures to integrate substantial amounts of green energy into their grids.
All these indicators suggest that alternative energy technologies, particularly the solar photovoltaic industry, in the United States and the rest of the world will be expanding at an unprecedented rate that will result in the creation of thousands of job opportunities for trained scientists, engineers, and technologists.
Alternative Energy Systems in Building Design is intended primarily to be a design reference guide for engineers, architects, scientists, management personnel, and university students. This book also can be supplemented with a teacher's reference guide, which will allow it to be used in undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
The main objective of this book is to provide readers with a pragmatic design reference manual for the design and implementation of some of the most commercially viable alternative energy technologies. In view of the unprecedented worldwide demand for solar power cogeneration systems, this book has extensive coverage of solar physics, associated technologies, and pragmatic design guidelines for professionals who must assume responsibility for all aspects of a solar power project design. Design guidelines discussed in the book reflect my personal experiences as a consulting engineer and educator.
Material on fusion reactors is included. Although fission reactors are not considered an alternative energy technology, the coverage is intended to provide a comparative reference with the specifics of fusion reactors. In writing this book, I have attempted to incorporate all significant alternative energy technologies; in the process, I have made extensive use of material from my previous publications and published articles from the Department of Energy (DOE), National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL), Web resources such as Wikipedia, and many contributors (as cited and acknowledged throughout the book).
As part of solar power system design and implementation, this book also includes specific coverage of LEED design, energy conservation, and the unique economics of solar power financing and return on investment, which covers the details of personnel, material cost breakdowns, and energy cost analyses. In view of the recent developments of new financial strategies, this book includes a discussion about power purchase agreements (PPAs), brief coverage of the Kyoto Protocol, and a discussion of the national and international carbon cap and trade system, which would be of significant importance to program managers.
As custodians of our global village, we must urgently apply our collective human ingenuity and resources to stop and reverse global atmospheric and environmental pollution within the next generation. In the past couple of centuries, as engineers and scientists, we have advanced these technologies, elevated living standards, and, in the process, grossly neglected the need for harmony with Mother Nature. Even though the challenges ahead may seem difficult to overcome, historically, as a nation, we have overcome equally insurmountable challenges and succeeded in realizing the seemingly impossible.
- Peter Gevorkian, Ph.D., RE.
Table of Contents
Introduction. Acknowlegments. Disclaimer Note. Chapter 1: Global Warming: Climatic and Atmospheric Changes. Chapter 2: Energy Systems. Chapter 3: Solar Power System Physics and Technologies. Chapter 4: California Solar Initiative Program. Chapter 5: Energy Conservation. Chapter 6: Passive Solar Heat Technologies. Chapter 7: Fuel Cell Technology. Chapter 8: Wind Energy Technologies. Chapter 9: Ocean Energy Technologies. Chapter 10: Hydro-Electric and Micro-Hydro Turbine Power. Chapter 11: Geothermal Energy. Chapter 12: Biofuel, Biogas, and Thermal Depolymerization Technologies. Chapter 13: Fission- and Fusion-Type Nuclear Power. Chapter 14: Air Pollution Abatement. Chapter 15: Carbon Dioxide Sequestration and Carbon Trading Economics. Appendix A: Unit Conversion and Design Reference Tables. Appendix B: Photo Gallery. Appendix C: Historical Time Line of Solar Energy. Appendix D: Glossary of Renewable Energy Power Systems. Bibliography. Index.
About the Author
Peter Gevorkian PhD PE is president of Vector Delta Design Group, Inc., an electrical engineering and solar power design consulting firm. He is the author of Sustainable Energy Systems in Architectural Design, Sustainable Energy Systems Engineering, and Solar Power in Building Design. |
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