Power from the People

by Pahl, Greg; Jones, Van

• ISBN13: 9781603584098
• ISBN10: 1603584099
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-08-13
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Pub Co

Summary

Over 90 percent of US power generation comes from large, centralized, highly polluting, nonrenewable sources of energy. It is delivered through long, brittle transmission lines, and then is squandered through inefficiency and waste. But it doesn't have to be that way. Communities can indeed produce their own local, renewable energy. Power from the Peopleexplores how homeowners, co-ops, nonprofit institutions, governments, and businesses are putting power in the hands of local communities through distributed energy programs and energy-efficiency measures.Using examples from around the nation - and occasionally from around the world - Greg Pahl explains how to plan, organize, finance, and launch community-scale energy projects that harvest energy from sun, wind, water, and earth. He also explains why community power is a necessary step on the path to energy security and community resilience - particularly as we face peak oil, cope with climate change, and address the need to transition to a more sustainable future.This book - the second in the Chelsea Green Publishing Company and Post Carbon Institute's Community Resilience Series - also profiles numerous communitywide initiatives that can be replicated elsewhere.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. xiii
Setting the Stage
Energy and Our Communities	p. 1
Conservation and Relocalization	p. 23
Rethinking Energy	p. 35
Individual Energy Resilience
Your Household's Energy Resilience	p. 49
Community Energy Resilience
Community Energy	p. 71
Solar	p. 100
Wind	p. 113
Hydroelectricity	p. 128
Biomass	p. 143
Biogas	p. 158
Liquid Biofuels	p. 172
Geothermal	p. 187
Exceptional Community Energy Initiatives	p. 202
A Call to Action
Be Prepared	p. 219
Resources	p. 226
Endnotes	p. 234
Glossary	p. 243
Bibliography	p. 249
Index	p. 251
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