A real-world guide for adapting to the new energy era The Energy Disruption Triangle is a treatise on the energy revolution's real-world impacts, and a handbook for anyone looking to weather the storm. Three major technologies are already changing the energy paradigm: solar energy, electric vehicles, and energy storage. As technology continues to evolve and become more accessible to the masses, the nation's energy habits will experience a dramatic upheaval; this book provides actionable guidance to help you adapt. We are already in the beginning stages of this black swan event, and most people don't know what's coming—but it will come much sooner and much faster than anyone thinks. This book reveals the revolution happening right before our eyes, and shows you how to thrive in this new era. Learn how our energy supplies—and usage—are changing Understand why energy storage matters, and how the technology is evolving Explore the history and future of groundbreaking energy technologies Delve into the disruption of the U.S. energy supply, and the possibility of energy independence Rapidly advancing battery technology is boosting energy storage for homeowners, utilities, and electric vehicle manufacturers, stranding fossil fuels in the ground due to the high price of extraction relative to cost-effective sources such as solar and wind. Traditional energy sources are being phased out, and our nation has come to a fork in the road: uphold the status quo and allow our energy supply to be disrupted, or adapt and advance to a state of total energy independence. The Energy Disruption Triangle explores the state of U.S. energy from source to consumer, and provides insight into the three sectors that are changing the world.

This comprehensive volume of the Elgar Encyclopedia of Environmental Law provides an overview of the major elements of energy law from a global perspective. Based on an in-depth analysis of the energy chain, it offers insight into the impacts of climate change and environmental issues on energy law and the energy sector. This timely reference work highlights the need for modern energy law to consider environmental impacts and promote the use of clean energy sources, whilst also safeguarding a reliable and affordable energy supply.

The industrial age of energy and transportation will be over by 2030. Maybe before. Exponentially improving technologies such as solar, electric vehicles, and autonomous (self-driving) cars will disrupt and sweep away the energy and transportation industries as we know it. The same Silicon Valley ecosystem that created bit-based technologies that have disrupted atom-based industries is now creating bit- and electron-based technologies that will disrupt atom-based energy industries. Clean Disruption projections (based on technology cost curves, business model innovation as well as product innovation) show that by 2030: - All new energy will be provided by solar or wind. - All new mass-market vehicles will be electric. - All of these vehicles will be autonomous (self-driving) or semi-autonomous. - The new car market will shrink by 80%. - Even assuming that EVs don't kill the gasoline car by 2030, the self-driving car will shrink the new car market by 80%. - Gasoline will be obsolete. Nuclear is already obsolete. - Up to 80% of highways will be redundant. - Up to 80% of parking spaces will be redundant. - The concept of individual car ownership will be obsolete. - The Car Insurance industry will be disrupted. The Stone Age did not end because we ran out of rocks. It ended because a disruptive technology ushered in the Bronze Age. The era of centralized, command-and-control, extraction-resource-based energy sources (oil, gas, coal and nuclear) will not end because we run out of petroleum, natural gas, coal, or uranium. It will end because these energy sources, the business models they employ, and the products that sustain them will be disrupted by superior technologies, product architectures, and business models. This is a technology-based disruption reminiscent of how the cell phone, Internet, and personal computer swept away industries such as landline telephony, publishing, and mainframe computers. Just like those technology disruptions flipped the architecture of information and brought abundant, cheap and participatory information, the clean disruption will flip the architecture of energy and bring abundant, cheap and participatory energy. Just like those previous technology disruptions, the Clean Disruption is inevitable and it will be swift.

An imaginative, radically new interpretation of the twenty-first-century fate of democracy by a distinguished scholar.

The use of renewables is spreading rapidly. Over a quarter of global electricity is already generated from solar, wind, hydro and biomass energy. With costs falling significantly, renewables are booming, helping to avoid the major climate change risks associated with fossil fuel use in power stations, homes and vehicles. But can we get rid of all of these dirty energy sources – and nuclear power, as well – and deliver 100% of our energy from renewables? Or are renewable energy systems inherently unreliable and expensive, given the need to deal with their variability? In this timely analysis, leading energy expert David Elliott tackles these issues head on and asks to what extent renewables can deliver a technologically and economically viable energy future. Exploring both the progress and problems of renewables against a backdrop of rising energy demand, he argues that, on balance, they do seem to be living up to their promises. With renewables rapidly expanding across the globe, and China now leading the pack, a renewable future could really be on the horizon.