Towards Sustainable Energy

The goal of reducing the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases is currently accepted by governments and in public opinion. However, it is expected that such reduction should not affect the present capacity of purveying energy. In this respect, the introduction of renewable primary sources that, like solar and wind energy, do not produce emissions has been hailed as the final solution by politics and opinion leaders.
This is an overoptimistic diagnostic which is not sustained by solid technical or economic considerations. In this book, presently available primary energy sources are analyzed from the viewpoint of their operating characteristics and of the impacts of their use at large scale. It is concluded that the transition to an energy system with acceptable emission levels is far from being a smooth process and different alternatives are possible. Mankind is presently at a crossroads in which difficult decisions must be taken if climate change is to be addressed without unacceptable social unrest.