Energy Technology and Policy Innovation
This book examines the challenge of achieving a clean, secure, and prosperous energy transition effectively and equitably and explains how society’s reliance on fossil fuels contributes to climate change. To tackle this challenge, the authors address tough questions and explore solutions for transitioning to cleaner energy sources, using energy more efficiently, and implementing nature-based solutions.
This classroom-tested text provides students with a solid understanding of current energy markets and how they could evolve with the adoption of alternative technologies and policies. It covers the mechanisms that promote change, focusing on a polycentric governance approach and the roles of public policy, science, and innovation, as well as social, cultural, and business-based movements. Major topics include the science of climate change, the role of energy in the economy, environmental externalities, cost-benefit analysis, policy instrument choices, systems and frameworks, justice and equity, technology learning curves, and policy diffusion. An introduction to key frameworks, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and modeling enable students to engage in the debate around energy policy, technology issues, and data analytics.
Energy Technology and Policy Innovation is essential reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, energy industry professionals, policymakers, scientists, and concerned citizens interested in environmental and energy engineering, sustainability, or climate science who want an introduction to energy technologies, environmental science, public policies, and markets for sustainable products and services.
- Provides readers with an introduction to key concepts along with numerous figures, graphics, and case studies;
- Offers an illustration of cost-benefit analysis and descriptions of core scientific principles;
- Includes calculations and quizzes, essay questions, and qualitative assignments, along with an instructor’s manual.
“In Energy Technology and Policy Innovation, the reader will receive an expert, practical, and immediately applicable set of tools to analyze the decisions – technical, economic, political, and social – that arise every time an energy technology or energy system decision needs to be made.”
—Daniel M. Kammen, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Energy, Johns Hopkins University
Marilyn A. Brown, Ph.D., is a Regents and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a joint faculty member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Her research focuses on the design and impact of policies to accelerate the development and deployment of sustainable energy technologies. Dr. Brown has led several energy technology and policy scenario studies and is a national leader in analyzing and interpreting energy futures. Her six books include Climate Change and Global Energy Security: Technology and Policy Options (MIT Press, 2011); she has written over 250 journal articles. Currently, she is examining the energy affordability and regional outcomes of alternative U.S. policy scenarios. She contributed to the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports for which the IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Her work has had significant visibility in the policy arena, as evidenced by her briefings and testimonies before state and local legislative and regulatory bodies and committees of both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and international organizations. Dr. Brown has served on 10 National Academies committees and was a Presidential appointee and regulator of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority for two terms (2010-2017). She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in 2020 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2022.
Valerie M. Thomas, Ph.D., is the Anderson-Interface Chair of Natural Systems at the Georgia Institute of Technology, with appointments in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy. Dr. Thomas' research interests include energy, environmental impacts, technology development, and technology policy. She has a Ph.D. in high energy physics from Cornell University and a B.A. in physics from Swarthmore College. Her Ph.D. thesis work was on the catalysis of proton decay in grand unified theories, and her post-doctoral research was on the verification of nuclear arms control treaties. Her research publications span energy, environment, optimization, physics, and nuclear arms control. Before coming to Georgia Tech, she worked at Carnegie Mellon University, Princeton University, and one year as a Congressional Science Fellow in the U.S. Congress. She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the American Physical Society. She has served as a member of the EPA Chartered Science Advisory Board and of the USDA/DOE Biomass Technical Advisory Committee. At Georgia Tech, Dr. Thomas teaches graduate courses in Energy Technology and Policy, Life Cycle Assessment, and undergraduate courses in Energy Efficiency and Sustainability, Engineering Economics, and Senior Design.
