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| The Energy Construct: Achieving a Clean, Domestic, and Economical Energy Future | 
 enlarge | Author: Ben Cipiti
Publisher: BookSurge Publishing
Category: Book
Buy New: $12.99
Buy New from $12.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  (4 reviews)
Sales Rank: 343256
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 1419669788
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN: 9781419669781
ASIN: 1419669788
Publication Date: August 15, 2007
Release Date: August 15, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The Energy Construct establishes an energy strategy for the United States to achieve a clean, domestic, and economical energy future. Our continued reliance on fossil fuels is having drastic consequences to the environment, and our continued reliance on foreign oil threatens our national security and economic well-being. Biofuels, hydrogen, and electric vehicles are examined to find a truly green transportation alternative to oil. The economic challenges of renewable energy options are explored to determine which have the most promise for short and long term growth. A new look at nuclear energy examines its safety compared to other sources. Finally, carbon sequestration technologies are investigated as a way to achieve zero emission coal and natural gas plants. The various technologies are examined from the standpoints of economics, environmental impact, domestic resource potential, public acceptability, and reliability to find a realistic path forward.
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| Customer Reviews:
worthy book June 7, 2008
It is unfortunate that this book does not seem to have attracted a lot of readership, because I see it as an excellent vehicle for ordinary people concerned about energy issues to get an overview of what the future may hold as far as energy alternatives.
Interestingly, the book is heavily focused on the question of how to get away from fossil fuels in order to avoid greenhouse gas driven climate change.
With the currently skyrocketing price of oil, I think the public focus on energy is beginning to shift from the climate change issue to the peak oil problem.
If I had written such a book, it would have been focused on what do we replace fossil fuels in the future, because of the fact that the demand for energy will be increasingly outstripping the available supply of fossil fuels, hence fossil fuels will gradually cease to be economically viable as the source for our large-scale energy needs.
But no matter, because both climate change and peak oil dictate that we replace fossil fuel energy sources. (I guess if one is motivated strictly by the "peak oil" phenomenon then one might be a bit more amenable to generating power from coal, which is much more abundant, but I think most peak oil advocates including myself believe that we should migrate as much as and as quickly as possible toward fuel sources that are not exhaustible resources like fossil fuels; if we relied more heavily on coal then we accelerate the day when we hit "peak coal" and we have the same problem to address once again.
One thing I particularly like about the book is that the author is forthright in stating his conclusions about his view about the potential for each energy source he mentions.
An interesting point is that he intermingles the issue of how to fuel cars with the issue of future energy sources. That is a completely reasonable thing to do, particularly since he concludes that biofuels and hydrogen are not viable future fuel sources for transportation, leaving batteries as the only remaining alternative.
His assessment along those lines is rather clearcut. I think his conclusions are liable to be largely correct, but there are a few caveats that should be mentioned:
1). Biofuels may possibly turn out to be more viable than they currently appear, if it is possible to develop crops that are able to convert solar energy a lot more efficiently than is currently the case.
2). His conclusion that batteries will be central to transportation is likely to prove true, as far as I think there is a lot more plausible path to that than there is to a hydrogen or biofuel based transportation system. But, batteries are not a slam dunk. It appears likely that there will be batteries developed within a few years that can produce a vehicle with close to the same functionality as a gas-powered automobile. However, such a battery must be able to be mass produced at reasonable cost. With Lithium batteries, for example, the question has come up whether there would be adequate supplies of Lithium to be able to build a global transportation system on batteries that use that element.
Another thing about his focus on transportation- he discusses the issue in a way that sort of assumes that the only thing we use fossil fuels for is transportation fuel. That is a reasonable approach in order to keep the book as short as it is, which I think is a real virtue, although obviously there are a lot of other applications of fossil fuels that we have to address in the future as well.
My hunch is that we will wind still have a small amount of hydrocarbons produced (as biofuels) for certain critical applications such as making plastics, air travel for rich people (most of the air travel industry is going to vanish, and we are seeing that process being in front of our very own eyes right now in the airline industry), and of course farm chemicals. Hopefully there will be enough biofuels to meet those needs.
But we definitely won't be burning caviar so we can drive our two ton sports barges down to the corner grocery to pick up a pack of corn nuts, of that I am absolutely certain.
As to the author's discussion of renewables, I thought he covered it well. There are obviously a whole lot of complications that the brevity of the book does not permit him to dwell on, but I think he made a perfectly good trade off in that regard. Since I have done some informal study of alternative energy myself, a lot of what he covered was pretty familiar to me, but the one new thing I came away from the book was his view that the ocean energy sources have potential as large-scale energy sources, although their development is in a state of infancy. I always thought they only had potential to generate a fairly modest amount of energy. This motivates me to learn more about those sources.
One he didn't mention as far as I could see was OTEC, the approach where you generate power from temperature differentials in ocean water. That certainly should have been mentioned. If that is the only fault I can find in the book, he did a pretty darn good job.
I liked his coverage of nuclear power. He didn't really explain why nuclear waste storage is not nearly as big an issue as it is made out to be, presumably once again in order to keep from making the book too lengthy, but I agree with his assessment about nuclear power.
All in all, this is an excellent book that covers alternative energy in very simply language that is suitable for anyone regardless of whether they have any background on the issue, and I think it would go a long ways toward achieving a more informed public as far as energy issues are concerned, if it somehow were able to attract a larger reading audience.
Simple and organized - excellent... November 26, 2007
The technology, economics, environmental concerns, public acceptability, etc. of energy alternatives are presented in this fantastic piece. With a focus on both transportation and electricity, the author clearly constructs a viable energy solution.
Plan of Action Timeline for Individuals and Government October 15, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In answering what we as a society can do and what we as individuals can do, "The Energy Construct" lays out an evaluation of all current and developing energy sources and further ofers a plan based on what I consider to be the most important issues for Americans, the environment and economic impacts of Cipiti's plan.
Cipiti hits nail on the head September 27, 2007
"The Energy Construct..." Helps bring to light where we should be focusing our efforts and finances.
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