Front cover -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Table of contents -- List of figures -- List of tables -- First chapter -- 1 Introduction to electricity generation -- History of the electricity generation industry -- The evolution of electricity generation technologies -- The politics of electricity -- The size of the industry -- End notes -- 2 Environmental considerations -- The evolution of environmental awareness -- The environmental effects of power generation -- The carbon cycle and atmospheric warming -- Controlling carbon dioxide -- The hydrogen economy -- Externalities -- Life-cycle assessment -- The bottom line -- End notes -- 3 Coal-fired power plants -- Types of coal -- Coal cleaning and processing -- Traditional coal-burning power plant technology -- Boiler technology -- Steam turbine design -- Generators -- Emission control for traditional coal-burning plants -- Coal treatment -- Low nitrogen oxides burners -- Sulphur dioxide removal -- Nitrogen oxides capture strategies -- Combined sulphur and nitrogen oxides removal -- Particulate removal -- Mercury removal -- Carbon dioxide -- Advanced coal-burning power plant technology -- Fluidised-bed combustion -- Integrated-gasification combined cycle -- Environmental effects of coal combustion -- Financial risks associated with coal-fired power generation -- The cost of coal-fired electricity generation -- End notes -- 4 Gas turbines and combined cycle power plants -- Natural gas -- Natural gas costs -- Gas turbine technology -- Modern gas turbine design -- Advanced gas turbine design -- Reheating -- Intercooling -- Mass injection -- Recuperation -- Distributed generation -- Combined cycle power plants -- Micro turbines -- Environmental impact of gas turbines -- Nitrogen oxides -- Carbon dioxide -- Carbon monoxide and particulates.

Financial risks associated with gas-turbine-based power projects -- Technological risk -- Fuel risk -- The cost of gas turbine power stations -- End notes -- 5 Combined heat and power -- History -- Applications -- CHP technology -- Piston engines -- Steam turbines -- Gas turbines -- Micro turbines -- Fuel cells -- Nuclear power -- Environmental considerations -- Noise -- Heat -- Energy efficiency -- Financial risks -- Cost of CHP -- End notes -- 6 Piston-engine-based power plants -- Piston engine technology -- Engine size and speed -- Spark-ignition engines -- Compression engines -- Dual fuel engines -- Stirling engines -- Co-generation -- Combined cycle -- Environmental considerations -- Emission control -- Carbon dioxide -- Financial risks -- Costs -- End notes -- 7 Fuel cells -- The fuel cell principle -- Fuel cell chemistry -- Catalysts -- Hydrocarbon gas reformation -- Types of fuel cell -- Phosphoric acid fuel cell -- Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell -- Molten carbonate fuel cells -- Solid oxide fuel cells -- Environmental considerations -- Financial risks -- Fuel cell costs -- End notes -- 8 Hydropower -- The hydropower resource -- Hydro sites -- Dams and barrages -- Run-of-river project -- Reservoir projects -- Turbines -- Impulse turbines -- Reaction turbines -- Francis turbine -- Propeller and Kaplan turbines -- Generators -- Small hydropower -- The environment -- Inundation -- Sedimentation -- Inter-regional effects -- Greenhouse gases -- Human rights -- Financial risks -- Geological risk -- Hydrological risk -- The cost of hydropower -- End notes -- 9 Tidal power -- Tidal motion -- The tidal resource -- Tidal technology -- Tidal barrages -- Two-basin projects -- Bunded reservoir -- Turbines -- Speed regulation -- Sluices and shiplocks -- Modes of operation -- Environmental considerations -- Financial risks -- The cost of tidal power.

End note -- 10 Storage technologies -- Types of energy storage -- Pumped storage hydropower -- Plant design -- Turbines -- Global exploitation -- Financial risks -- Costs -- Compressed air energy storage -- Storage caverns -- Turbine technology -- Global exploitation -- Financial risk -- Costs -- Large-scale batteries -- Lead acid batteries -- Nickel-cadmium batteries -- Sodium-sulphur batteries -- Flow batteries -- Financial risks -- Costs -- Superconducting magnetic energy storage -- Financial risks -- Costs -- Flywheels -- Financial risks -- Costs -- Capacitors -- Hydrogen -- Environmental considerations -- Renewable energy -- Costs -- End notes -- 11 Wind power -- Wind sites -- Locating a site -- Turbulence -- Wind turbines -- Turbine size -- Horizontal or vertical? -- Rotor design -- Tower design -- Drive train and generator -- Wind farms and grid connection -- Offshore wind technology -- Constraints on wind capacity -- Environmental considerations -- Offshore wind -- Financial risks -- The cost of wind power -- End notes -- 12 Geothermal power -- The geothermal resource -- Geothermal fields -- Brine-methane reservoirs -- Hot dry rock -- Exploiting the magma -- Location of geothermal resources -- Geothermal energy conversion technology -- Direct-steam power plant -- Flash-steam plants -- Binary power plants -- Environmental considerations -- Financial risks -- The cost of geothermal power -- End notes -- 13 Solar power -- The solar energy resource -- Sites for solar power generation -- Solar technology -- Solar thermal power generation -- Parabolic troughs -- Solar towers -- Solar dish collectors -- Photovoltaic devices -- Solar photovoltaic technology -- Types of solar cell -- Solar cell manufacture -- Solar panels and inverters -- Solar cell deployment -- Utility photovoltaic arrays -- Solar concentrators -- Residential photovoltaic arrays.

Environmental considerations -- Financial risks -- The cost of solar power -- Solar thermal costs -- Solar photovoltaic costs -- End notes -- 14 Ocean power -- Ocean energy resource -- Ocean thermal energy conversion -- Open and closed cycle ocean thermal energy conversion -- Technical challenges -- Hybrid applications -- Browsing ocean thermal energy conversion -- The environmental impact of ocean thermal energy conversion -- The cost of ocean thermal energy conversion -- Wave energy -- Shore and near-shore wave converters -- 1. Oscillating water columns -- 2. Tapered channels -- 3. Oscillating flaps -- Offshore devices -- 1. Float pumps -- 2. Ducks, wave pumps and other water snakes -- 3. Piezoelectric devices -- The environmental implications of wave energy converters -- The cost of wave energy conversion -- Ocean current generation -- Horizontal axis turbines -- Vertical axis turbines -- Other tidal stream energy extractors -- Ocean current environmental considerations -- Cost of ocean current technology -- End notes -- 15 Biomass-based power generation -- Types of biomass -- Biomass wastes -- Energy crops -- Biomass energy conversion technology -- Direct firing -- Co-firing -- Biomass gasification -- Biomass digesters -- Liquid fuels -- Environmental considerations -- Life-cycle assessment -- Energy crops -- Waste fuels -- Financial risks -- Agricultural risk -- The cost of biomass generated power -- Technology costs -- Fuel costs -- Electricity costs -- End notes -- 16 Power from waste -- Landfill waste disposal -- Waste sources -- Waste composition -- Waste collection -- Waste power generation technologies -- Traditional combustion plants -- Gasification and pyrolysis -- Refuse-derived fuel -- Environmental considerations -- Waste plant emissions -- Ash -- Fly ash and flue gas treatment residues -- Flue gas -- Dioxins -- Heavy metals.

Financial risks -- The cost of energy from waste -- End notes -- 17 Nuclear power -- Global nuclear capacity -- The future -- Fundamentals of nuclear power -- Nuclear fission -- Controlled nuclear reaction -- Fusion -- Nuclear reactors -- Boiling water reactor -- Pressurised water reactor -- Canadian deuterium uranium reactor -- Advanced gas-cooled reactor -- High-temperature gas-cooled reactor -- Breeder (fast) reactors -- Advanced reactor designs -- Nuclear fusion -- Environmental considerations -- Radioactive waste -- Waste categories -- Decommissioning -- Financial risks associated with investing in nuclear power -- The cost of nuclear power -- End notes -- Index.