Category: Renewable energy

The Yieldco and Its Impact on Solar Energy

The following important article was authored by Dr. Peter Varadi, a colleague, friend, and a true solar energy pioneer. It was published today (10 July 2015) in the e-journal energypost.eu, and is republished here with the author’s permission. An introduction was added by Karel Beckman, editor-in-chief of energy post.eu.

Solar Revolution Meets Wall Street
July 10, 2015 by Peter F Varadi

Introduction: The invention of the YieldCo is a gamechanger that will enable spectacular growth of solar PV, writes solar pioneer Peter F. Varadi. According to Varadi, the PV YieldCo offers significant advantages over investments in fossil fuel power: no fuel supply is needed, no long-term purchasing contracts for the generated electricity and less costly infrastructure. The solar revolution meets Wall Street.

Solar power in the US is still lagging behind China and Germany, but if solar pioneer Peter F. Varadi is right, America may well catch up pretty soon. The reason is the YieldCo. A typically American financial innovation that will act as a “solar breeder”, argues Varadi.

The YieldCo is essentially an independent power producing (IPP) corporation that operates renewable energy assets, such as wind, solar and hdyro. The company is publicly traded, “yields” a predictable cash flow, and distributes its income to its shareholders. Thus, it opens up the renewable energy (especially solar PV) sector to investment by small mutual funds and millions of private citizens. The far-reaching effects will become apparent over the next few years, says Varadi: the YieldCo will transform the US solar market.
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In 1982 at Solarex, a company I co-founded in 1973 which had by then become the largest PV producer in the world, we envisioned a “Solar Breeder”. The idea was that we would manufacture solar cells and modules which would be mounted on the roof of our production facility to produce electricity which would then be used to produce solar cells and modules, etcetera.

With the completion of Solarex’s new solar cell and module manufacturing facility in 1982, the realization of this idea was started.

The slanted roof of the Solarex building (see photo) was covered with a PV roof producing 200 kW of electricity. The produced DC electricity was stored in batteries and converted to AC. The system was used to power 24/7 the production control systems.

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The World’s first and at that time the largest (200 MW) rooftop PV system. Courtesy of Mr. Ramon Dominguez

The cost of PV modules in those days was quite high, but we were able to do this, because that was the time when we developed the multicrystalline wafer casting technique. We did not want to sell the early production before we had experience with PV modules produced from those wafers to ensure that the process worked well. So, the first 200 kW of modules were mounted on the roof of the facility.

The idea of the “solar breeder” was tested, but in those days to power the entire production of a solar cell and module production facility would have been prohibitively expensive. The idea went dormant.

The reincarnation of the “Solar Breeder” idea with an economic twist came about 30 years later. The Solarex idea was to produce solar cells and modules by utilizing the electricity generated by a PV system. The new “Solar Breeder” idea is to utilize the income generated by selling PV systems to finance the production of more solar cells and modules to build the next PV systems. The new “Solar Breeder” concept is called “YieldCo”. It is transforming the solar power sector.

The invention of the “YieldCo” system

The origin of the “YieldCo” idea in the USA goes back to 1960 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) law. REITs are corporations which own and operate real estate properties and distribute their income to the shareholders. The REIT idea became so popular that at present REITs exist in 37 countries and in 2014 were listed globally on 456 stock exchanges.

21 years later the idea was extended to Master Limited Partnerships (MLP) pertaining first to “natural resources” such as petroleum and natural gas extraction and transportation. The first MLP was Apache Petroleum Company in 1981, based on oil and gas resources. The idea became so popular that it was adapted to a variety of industries.

In 2012, 52 years after the REIT financial program was started the “YieldCo” idea was initiated. YieldCo is basically the adaptation of the REIT program to Renewable Energy (RE), by forming an independent power producing (IPP) corporation to operate primarily RE (water, wind and solar) assets. The company is publicly traded, “yields” a predictable cash flow, and distributes its income to the shareholders.

The first YieldCo in the renewable energy field was Brookfield Asset Management’s subsidiary Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners. It was established – only 3 years ago – at the beginning of 2012 and is listed on the New York stock exchange (BEP). BEP’s assets are hydroelectric (80%) and wind plants (20%) scattered all over the world with a total installed capacity of about 7,000 MW.

The basis of the success of the YieldCos is manifold:

Because they are on the stock market the possibility of relatively small investment by mutual funds and small investment by private citizens opens the pocket book of millions.
Liquidity: one can get money out when needed.
Relatively stable cash flow: for example the electric yield of PV systems is predictable for at least 20 years and is not affected by political or financial crises which puts YieldCos, in terms of risk limitation, ahead of REITs or MLPs.
Result of the success of the first “YieldCo”

The stock market success of Brookfield opened up the floodgates to other RE YieldCos:

2013

April: Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Yield Infrastructure Capital Inc. (HASI) New York stock exchange (NYSE). [Financing energy efficiency projects also wind and solar]
July: NRG Yield Inc. (NYLD) New York stock exchange (NYSE) – [Wind, Natural gas, PV (12%)]
July: TransAlta Renewables (RNW) Toronto stock exchange. [wind 63% – Gas 31% and Hydro 6%]
September: Pattern Energy Group (PEGI) New York stock exchange (NASDAQ-NMS) – [Wind]
2014

June: Abengoa Yield (ABY) New York stock exchange (NASDAQ-NMS) – [50% concentrated solar thermal (not PV), 3% water, conventional power and Electric transmission].
June: NextEra Energy Partners (NEP) New York stock exchange (NYSE) – [77% Wind, and 23% PV]
July: TerraForm Power (TERP) New York stock exchange (NASDAQ-NMS) [Started with 100% PV, added recently some wind]. TerraForm Power was created by SunEdison, one of the biggest PV manufacturers in the USA.
2015

June 19th: 8point3 (CAFD) New York stock exchange (NASDAQ-NMS) First Solar and SunPower the other large PV manufacturers in the USA created a joint YieldCo by transferring to it PV systems.
2015 (planned)

TerraForm Global Inc.: SunEdison after its successful first experience filed an S-1 form with the U.S. Securities andExchange Commission (SEC) for this initial public offering to raise US $700 million.
NSP: Neo Solar Power Corporation at the moment the largest Taiwanese Solar cell and module manufacturer announced that it plans to announce Taiwan’s first YieldCo to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock exchange by the end of 2015.
YieldCos’ solar assets

As part of a YieldCo asset mixture the utilization of PV started in 2013 (e.g. NRG Yield Inc. – 12%).

In 2014 “Abengoa Yield” (ABY), a subsidiary of Abengoa S.A., a Spanish company, was the first YieldCo that had concentrated solar (thermal) systems (CSP not PV) as the majority of its asset mixture. Abengoa produces large scale CSP systems such as “Solana” (280 MW) located 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, AZ, and obviously had faith that their operation will be satisfactory. “Abengoa Yield” was created by assembling several CSP Assets in Spain and in South Africa and raised US $828 million.

But the most remarkable YieldCo in 2014 was SunEdison’s because it was the first PV manufacturing company which created a YieldCo [TerraForm Power (TERP)] consisting entirely of PV systems (utility scale PV 848 MW and distributed PV 283 MW). In 2015 SunEdison is planning to establish its second YieldCo (TerraForm Global Inc.). SunEdison was the first PV manufacturer to reincarnate the “Solar Breeder” ide a. SunEdison manufactured PV systems, transferred them to a newly created YieldCo and received cash which it can use to produce new PV systems.

Following SunEdison two major US manufacturers, First Solar and SunPower, formed a joint YieldCo, 8point3, the assets of which are 100% PV and which went public on June 19, 2015. This is also a good example of the Solar Breeder system: they manufactured PV systems, transferred them to a newly created YieldCo, and received US $420 million cash which they can use to produce new PV systems. The strange name, 8point3, derives from the fact that it takes 8.3 minutes for the sun’s radiation to reach the earth.

Thus, in 2014/2015 all of the three major US PV manufacturers established their first YieldCo.

The announcement by Neo Solar Power Corporation (NSP) of Taiwan that it is planning to establish a YieldCo in 2015 indicates that the YieldCo idea has spread to the Asian PV manufacturers. It is now only a matter of time before the many Chinese, Korean and Indian PV manufacturers will see the light and establish YieldCos as well. The money to be raised for PV systems b y this approach will dwarf Warren Buffett’s US $2.5 billion which his company invested in the Antelope Valley Solar Projects in California.

Why PV assets will be preferred in YieldCos

As we saw, at the outset the assets of YieldCos were primarily hydro and wind systems. Now they are turning more and more to PV. The three US PV manufacturers started their YieldCo’s with 100% PV assets. There are two main reasons why PV in future will dominate the assets assembled to create YieldCos.

Location: In order to establish a RE YieldCo one needs to build or acquire RE electric power generating system(s). These systems could be hydro, wind, concentrating solar and solar PV. Of these systems hydro, wind and concentrating solar can only be established where there is water, sufficient wind or direct, unscattered sunshine available. These are only available in a limited number of places on earth. PV systems on the other hand can be established in most parts of the Earth where people live. An example is Germany which is not the sunniest part of our planet. It is located quite far north and it has lots of cloudy days but at this time there is more PV capacity installed in Germany than in any other country. This means, that YieldCos utilizing PV assets could be anywhere. The other RE assets are more limited and soon only a limited number will be available for YieldCo.
ROFO: For tax reasons YieldCos have to invest constantly in new assets to assure the growth of income for distribution to shareholders. It is therefore extremely important that the YieldCo has a contract with the technology “sponsor” (originator) to be able to obtain assets that the “sponsor” is developing. This ensures a pipeline for future assets and a “right to first offer” (ROFO) for the assets. This strange wording is a remnant of REIT, the ancestor of YieldCo, and means “Right of First Negotiation”, so that the “sponsor” should have good faith negotiations with the YieldCo before negotiating with other parties. The idea behind this is that the YieldCo should have an assured path to new assets. To assure a pipeline in hydro or wind is complicated as they have to be found at a proper location and may not be always available. However, if a PV manufacturer is the “sponsor” it can assure the continuation of new PV assets in any size and location at any time when needed, because the PV manufacturer’s business is to produce them continuously. PV applications are ubiquitous and can be installed quickly.
The advantage of the YieldCo system for PV manufacturers

PV YieldCo is the perfect solar breeder. A YieldCo’s shares when sold can be used as a source of low cost money for producing more PV systems. The beauty for the manufacturer is, that by establishing a YieldCo based on the PV manufacturer’s need of cash it can sell
all the shares or
as many shares for as much money as the PV manufacturer needs, and enjoy the income from the unsold shares and
may retain management and maintenance contracts, which provides additional income.
PV manufacturers for a long time will not have to face overcapacity and unsold inventory, because it can be used to produce YieldCos.
PV manufacturers do not have to find single investors like Warren Buffett’s company which can afford to invest lots of money to buy a large utility size PV system. People can buy the YieldCo shares in any quantity and it has been shown that it was not a problem for PV YieldCos to generate many hundreds of millions of dollars of investment capital.
Finally, a PV YieldCo offers significant advantages over an investment in a fossil fuel power generating system. Fossil fuel power plant needs three things to be economically successful: a long term agreement for fuel supply at reasonable cost; capital investment to build the plant; and a long term guaranteed customer base.

For a PV YieldCo these issues are vastly simplified: one does not have to secure a long term contract for the fuel, because the nuclear reactor in the sun provides it free of charge; raising money on the stock market for a YieldCo turns out to be much easier than convincing lenders to provide the large amount of money to build a fossil fuel plant; and there is no need to look for customers who would sign a long term contract, as PV systems can be built anywhere and can reach customers easily: through the utilities by the existing grid or by a mini-grid; or directly when they are off-grid.

YieldCos’ influence on the future

For all these reasons, I have come to the conclusion that the effect of global implementation of the PV YieldCo system will radically increase the growth of the utilization of PV and accelerate the expansion of PV companies. More than that: it will also affect the solar PV distribution system, influencing other industries at the same time, for example reshaping the business model of utilities. Financial revolutions can be no less important than technological revolutions.

© Peter F. Varadi. All rights reserved

Peter F. Varadi wrote a history of the early years of the solar industry, Sun Above the Horizon, published last year by Pan Stanford Publishing, and reviewed here on Energy Post.

Financing the Growth of Renewable Energy in Scotland

This is a follow-up to my previous blog post ‘The Exciting Changes Taking Place in Scotland’s Energy System’ that discusses how Scotland’s already impressive and steadily increasing deployment of renewable energy systems is being financed.  While technology costs  will always be an important part of the total cost of deploying renewable energy systems, as these costs come down with technological advances, large scale manufacturing, and increased deployment experience, financing costs imposed by lending institutions, whether private or public, take on increasing  importance.  Financing of emerging technology options has always been recognized as a critical barrier, and demonstrating the ‘bankability’ of proposed projects requires careful attention in the planning phases. Finance issues are a major focus of the annual meeting of Scottish Renewables, the representative body of the Scottish renewable energy industry since 1996. It has over 300 members and member organisations, ranging across all technologies and supply chains.

As reported in the previous blog post, Scotland now generates enough wind energy to meet its entire residential electricity demand, and renewables are Scotland’s largest source of electrical power, with much more to come. How this came about is a case study in the importance of national policy in support of renewable generation, a policy still needing implementation in the United States.

Scotland, a separate country with its own parliament even though formally a part of the United Kingdom, has set two important energy goals: to achieve 100% renewable electricity generation by 2020 and achieve zero carbon emissions from all power generation by 2030. In support of these goals the Scottish Government has set up several financing programs that offer assistance to renewable energy projects in both the planning and deployment phases. These include the Scottish Government Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES), Scottish Investment Bank’s Renewable Energy Investment Fund (REIF), and Home Energy Scotland. Community Energy Scotland is a registered charity that provides practical help for communities on green energy development and energy conservation. It is supported separately by local communities. Each program is described briefly below.

CARES is a loan fund established in 2011 “..to provide loans toward the high risk, pre-planning consent stage of renewable energy projects which have significant community engagement and benefit.” It is managed by localenergyscotland.org on behalf of the Scottish Government. A part of CARES, the Local Energy Challenge Fund, was established more recently “..to demonstrate the value and benefit of local low-carbon energy economies.”

CARES financing is designed to to support high-risk early planning stages widely recognized as principal barriers for resource-limited small businesses and community groups. Its key features include:
– financing of initial planning of any renewable energy project up to 5MW in size in a competitive process
– unsecured loans of up to £150,000 (£1 = $1.55) for up to 90% of project costs
– a fixed interest rate of 10%

Phase 1 of the Local Energy Challenge Fund attracted 114 applications and 17 were funded. Phase 2 is currently underway. Phase 1 projects include a community district heating scheme, community use of hydrogen, ground source heat pump projects, and development of community microgrids.

The Renewable Energy Investment Fund, established in 2012, supports projects at the demonstration and commercialization stage that
“- Deliver energy from a renewable source, reduce the cost of renewable energy or provide key solutions for renewable energy generation
– Provide benefit to the economy of Scotland
– Have a demonstrable funding gap for REIF to consider
– Be at a sufficient stage of development to require REIF funding before March 2016”

Some of the project types that REIF can support include marine energy, community owned renewables, and renewable district heating. The REIF team also provides technical advice and assistance in finding other funding sources. Its £103 million fund is available to provide commercially priced loans, equity investments, and loan guarantees. Initial projects include
– a £735,000 loan to the Islay Energy Community Benefit Society to install a community owned, 330KW wind turbine on the island,
– a £615,000 loan to a village in Stirlingshire in support of their efforts to become a zero-carbon, zero-waste community,
– a £700,000 loan to support the first phase of the 0.5MW Shetland Tidal Array, and
– a £250,000 loan to support development of the AWS-III wave energy device.

Home Energy Scotland provides up to 75% of the total cost of installing a renewable energy system up to £10,000, and up to 100% of the total cost of connecting to a district heating scheme up to £5,000. Loans are available to owner occupiers in Scotland for existing and new residential buildings. Loan amounts and repayment schedules vary by technology – e.g., the maximum loan amount for installation of a PV system is £2,500 and a maximum loan repayment period of 5 years, while the maximums for installation of a ground source to water heat pump are £10,000 and 12 years. In all cases a Green Deal Assessment of the proposed project is required and installers must be certified.

Community Energy Scotland supports community-owned projects by providing funding for feasibility studies, planning, community consultation, and help in finding funding sources. Supported projects include energy audits, energy efficiency improvements, micro-renewables installations, and installation of wind turbines.

All of the above paints a clear and exciting picture of a country committed to a clean energy future that is willing to back up its words with substantial and ongoing budgets. Scotland may thus prove to be an example to the rest of the world as we leave the fossil fuel era and move into the new era of renewable energy.

Addressing Climate Change – A Needed Policy

The following editorial appeared today (25 April 2015) in the Washington Post:

““CLIMATE CHANGE can no longer be denied,” President Obama said in Everglades National Park on Wednesday. “It can’t be edited out. It can’t be omitted from the conversation.” No matter how much, Mr. Obama might have added, Republican presidential hopefuls would like to neglect the matter.
Since the GOP presidential season began, Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), the first major Republican to declare his candidacy, sounded the most extreme note on global warming, insisting that his attacks on scientists make him akin to Galileo standing up to 16th-century theological authorities. Shortly after announcing his candidacy, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) offered some vague doubts about how much humans contribute to climate change. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who has not yet formally entered the race, said that he is “concerned” about climate change and that the United States should negotiate with other nations about it, but he also suggested that the private economy has already addressed the problem and that he’s more worried about the “hollowing out of our industrial core.”
The common element among GOP leaders is resistance to the notion that the government needs a significant policy against greenhouse-gas emissions. What would the national conversation be like if Mr. Obama got his way and they accepted the need to act with ambition?
Ironically, it wouldn’t be kind to some of Mr. Obama’s policies, but that’s not his fault. Because of the GOP’s abdication, the Obama administration has cobbled together a climate plan from legal authorities it could exercise without Congress’s say-so. The result is an awkwardly designed and inefficient approach. A more reasonable Congress could shape a more efficient plan, with an eye toward sparing the economy gratuitous pain.
Economists have known for decades how to do this. First, the government should eliminate energy subsidies of all kinds — for fmossil fuels as well as renewable energy. Then Congress should put a significant tax on carbon-dioxide emissions and set it to rise over time. The resulting market forces would decide how the economy would move to a greener state. Consumers and businesses would have more reason to consider wasting less electricity, buying efficient appliances and investing in products that require less carbon dioxide to make. Generators of electricity would have an incentive to use cleaner fuels and renewable sources of energy — when it makes economic sense, not when the Environmental Protection Agency decides they must. Companies that exploit giveaway subsidy policies would have to compete fairly.
Republicans, meanwhile, could return any revenue raised to taxpayers, either directly or by reducing taxes on labor, on corporations or in any manner of their choosing.
The nation’s climate debate has been impoverished by the absence of responsible conservative voices. A revenue-neutral carbon tax is a reform Republicans should love. It could end irrational federal subsidies, lower the GOP’s most-hated taxes and harness market efficiency to provide some insurance for the planet at a minimal cost. Instead, the party’s would-be leaders appear to be looking for any way to avoid engaging seriously.”

I don’t always agree with the Post’s editorial positions, but on this subject I agree strongly.  My views on the need for putting a price on carbon emissions to allow market forces to address global warming and climate change are well documented in several of the posts you will find on this blog web site. I also agree, and have written, that government subsidies to energy companies are unbalanced and need redress if not outright elimination so that energy technologies can compete on a level playing field. I also agree that using the resulting revenue proceeds of putting a price on carbon emissions to address inequities and reduce other taxes is a basis for bipartisan cooperation between Democrats and Republicans.

It is more than time for the U.S. Congress to get on the right side of history and address the global warming issue in a way that protects the long-term interests of the nation and the larger global community.

The Exciting Changes Taking Place in Scotland’s Energy System

I returned recently from a two-week visit to Scotland, my wife’s home country. She and I are now the owners of a flat (apartment in Americanese) in East Kilbride, near Glasgow, that makes visiting with her family much easier.  Another exciting feature is that on all clear days (it happens occasionally in Scotland) we can see, from the flat’s bedroom windows, wind turbines spinning in the nearby Whitelee wind farm, currently the largest operating onshore wind farm in Europe (just under 600MWp). The wind farm is several miles away from the flat.

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The purpose of this blog post is to discuss the exciting developments taking place in Scotland’s energy system, where the stated national goal is to go 100% renewables for electricity supply by 2020. Achieving this goal, whether in 2020 or sometime in the decade afterwards, will rely heavily on Scotland’s large wind resources, both onshore and offshore. As a sparsely populated country (total population is 5.4 million ) with significant renewable energy resources, Scotland “..is in a unique position to demonstrate how the transition to a low-carbon, widely distributed energy economy may be undertaken.”

What is Scotland’s current energy situation?  In Late November 2014 it was announced by the independent trade body Scottish Renewables that “.. with numbers from the first half of 2014, ..renewable energy was Scotland’s largest source of (electrical) power.” Specifically, for the first half of 2014, renewables provided 10.3 TWh of electrical energy, while nuclear power, previously Scotland’s main sources of electricity, provided 7.8 TWh. Coal was third with 5.6 TWh with natural gas at 1.4 TWh.

This increase in renewable generation continues the trend shown in the following chart:

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Installed renewable capacity increased to 7,112 MW by the end of the 3d quarter of 2014 – mostly onshore wind and hydro – with another 441 MW of wind capacity (onshore) in construction, 7,720 MW (onshore and offshore) awaiting construction, and 3,765 MW (onshore) in planning. Small amounts of other renewable generation (biomass, landfill gas, hydro) are also in the pipeline.

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With wind power already generating enough electricity to supply more than total Scottish household demand, Niall Stuart, Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables, sees much more potential in the future: “Offshore wind and marine energy (wave, tidal, ocean current) are still in the early stages of development but could make a big contribution to our future energy needs if they get the right support from government. That support includes the delivery of grid connections to the islands, home to the UK’s very best wind, wave and tidal sites.”

Scottish enthusiasm for renewables was bolstered by a report issued  by WWF Scotland in January (‘Pathways to Power: Scotland’s route to clean, renewable, secure electricity by 2030’) which concluded that, with respect to electricity, a fossil fuel-free Scotland is not only technically feasible but “..could prove a less costly and safer option than pursuing fossil fuel- based development..” that assumes carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology will be operating at scale in 2030. With regard to the Scottish government’s stated goal of decarbonizing the electrical sector by 2030, Paul Gardner of DNV GL, lead author of the report, has stated that “There is no technical reason requiring conventional fossil and nuclear generation in Scotland.”  In addition, Gina Hanrahan, climate and energy officer at WWF Scotland, explained that “The report shows that not only is a renewable, fossil fuel-free electricity system perfectly feasible in Scotland by 2030, it’s actually the safe bet. Pursuing this pathway would allow Scotland to maintain and build on its position as the UK and Europe’s renewable powerhouse, cut climate emissions (electricity generation accounts for one-third of Scotland’s emissions) and continue to reap the jobs and investment opportunities offered by Scotland’s abundant renewable resources.”

What is Scotland’s natural resource base for renewables?  In addition to its existing installed capacity of hydropower (1.3 GW), it is estimated that wind, wave and tide make up more than 80% of Scotland’s  renewable energy potential – 36.5GW/wind (onshore and offshore), 7.5 GW/tidal power, 14 GW/wave power. This total, almost 60 GW, is considerable greater than Scotland’s existing electrical generating capacity from all fuel sources of 10.3 GW.

It is interesting to note that Scotland also has significant fossil fuel resources, including 62.4% of the European Union’s proven oil reserves, 12.5% of the EU’s proven natural gas reserves, and 69% of UK coal reserves.  Nonetheless, the Scottish Government, as discussed above, has set ambitious goals for renewable energy production. This is likely driven by concern for global climate change and the economic potential for Scotland as a major source of renewable energy.

 

 

Two New Books Worthy of Your Attention

I am pleased to use my blog to bring two new books to your attention, one just published and one to be published next month.  Both are highly recommended.

The first, just published by W.W.Norton and co-authored by Lester Brown and several of his Earth Policy Institute colleagues, is ‘The Great Transition: Shifting from Fossil Fuels to Solar and Wind Energy’.  It addresses the energy transition that is unfolding rapidly around us and is a topic I have been writing and speaking about for many years, including in this blog. Lester has been an important part of this discussion from day one  and in this book he and his fellow authors “..explain the environmental and economic wisdom of moving to solar and wind energy and show how fast change is coming.” It is a global topic that needs increased public visibility and discussion, one that will impact the energy systems that our children and grandchildren will inherit.  Without going into too much detail I will quote just a few lines from the book’s preface and  the comments of two book reviewers:

“Preface: Energy transitions are not new. Beginning several centuries ago, the world shifted from wood to coal. The first oil well was drilled over 150 years ago. Today we are at the start of a new energy transition, one that takes us from an economy run largely on coal and oil to one powered by the sun and wind. This monumental shift, which is just getting underway, will compress a half-century of change into the next decade.

The purpose of this book is to describe how this great transition is starting to unfold. While the book cuts a wide swath and takes a global view, it is not meant to be a comprehensive study of the world energy economy. Each technology discussed here easily deserves its own book, as do many topics important to the transition that are not discussed in depth here, such as energy efficiency, the “smartening” of electrical grids, energy savings opportunities in industry, and batteries and other energy storage…..”

Reviewer comments: “Brown’s ability to make a complicated subject accessible to the general reader is remarkable..”(Katherine Salant, Washington Post); “..a highly readable and authoritative account of the problems we face from global warming to shrinking water resources, fisheries, forests, etc. The picture is very frightening. But the book also provides a way forward.”(Clare Short, British Member of Parliament).

The second recommended book, due out next month, is Gustaf Olsson’s second edition of  ‘Water and Energy Threats and Opportunities’. The first edition was published by the International Water Association in June 2012.

In my review of his first edition I stated:  “Professor Olssons book, Water and Energy Threats and Opportunities, the result of a meticulous multi-year effort, meets an important and growing need: to define and illuminate the critical linkage between water and energy. He explores the water-energy nexus in detail, and carefully discusses its many implications, including for food production and its connection to global climate change. He properly and repeatedly emphasizes the important message that water and energy issues must be addressed together if society is to make wise and efficient use of these critical resources. Given its comprehensive scope and careful scholarship, the book will serve as a valuable addition to the libraries of students, researchers, practitioners, and government officials at all levels.”

In his expanded second edition Professor Olsson, a distinguished faculty member in industrial automation at Lund University in Sweden and a Distinguished Fellow of the International Water Association, adds additional and updated information on climate change,  energy system water requirements, renewable energy, and a clear and comprehensive discussion of the important subject of fracking for fossil fuel supplies which has recently emerged as a major public issue.

In its first incarnation Professor Olsson’s book qualified as a ‘bible’ on water-energy issues. In its second incarnation it qualifies even more so.