Energy

Book excerpt: Energy: Economy and Prospective emerged from the course taught by the author at the Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne. It focuses on the economics and future prospects of energy. Having as much an analytical as well as a synthetic approach, the author has been struck by the confusion and superficiality reigning in this vital, complex area, and has recognized the need to link theory with practice and the present with the future. The book begins by defining the actual situation and the basic factors which will determine the evolution of energy consumption. From it will come an estimate of probable needs for the decades to come. Separate chapters discuss topics such as primary energy resources; the use that is made of them in useful energy; the transformation chains between the primary form and the useful form and the corresponding flows; and methods applied to produce this energy. This work is aimed at anyone wishing to acquire general information on the economics of energy. The author's intention is that it should correspond to that which any university student should know of the matter, and especially to that which should not be unknown to any engineer aware that he should not be just a specialist but must take his share of responsibility in the economic evolution of that part of society to which he belongs.