This book provides detailed yet easily understandable information about sustainable energy alternatives in the context of growing public concern about climate change, the impending fuel crisis and environmental degradation. It deals with the history of energy use and the factors that have led to the current interest in energy alternatives, and assesses the chance of renewable energy replacing fossil fuels in the future. The authors manage to make a highly complex and often intimidating subject not only accessible but also engaging and entertaining. This book unpacks but never simplifies the science of energy, leavening the more technical passages with anecdotes, metaphors, examples and imagery. By also dealing with the history, politics and economics of energy use, it offers both scientific and non-scientific readers a deeper understanding of the most important issue of our age.

This is a book that tackles the most important issue of our age in a highly informative, accessible and engaging way.

1. What is energy? 2. Where does energy come from? 3. How much energy is enough? 4. How energy is produced 5. Challenging times: the politics and economics of energy 6. The price of energy consumption 7. Energy from my backyard