Renewable and Efficient Electric Power Systems

Renewable and Efficient Electric Power Systems
Gilbert M. Masters | 2004-08-11 00:00:00 | Wiley-IEEE Press | 680 | Engineering
This is a comprehensive textbook for the new trend of distributed power generation systems and renewable energy sources in electric power systems. It covers the complete range of topics from fundamental concepts to major technologies as well as advanced topics for power consumers. As a textbook it will serve undergraduate students from a variety of disciplines such as mechanical, chemical, civil and environmental engineering, and electrical engineering.
Reviews
I've been a practicing solar energy professional for over 10 years: My bachelor's was in EE, master's degree in solar energy engineering and now work as a solar project developer and investor. I picked up this book at the PV America conference a couple of days ago - and read the whole PV grid-connected section towards the end of the book. I also read through the early "intro" chapters and the



The book covers a huge, but highly relevant selection of topics. Bottoms up, if you're building up from basics, it covers all the relevant basics in the early chapters, and technology-specific basics wherever relevant. e.g. the PV coverage of cell-basics, equivalent circuits and modeling, and adding up to modules and array performance, system sizing and economic analysis is very well done - you have enough knowledge after reading these chapters to do calculations, basic-to-advanced designs, and understand more detailed texts.



As a reference, almost anyone would benefit from the more advanced and thorough discussions. e.g. in the discussion on DC, standalone PV systems, you can quickly go through key issues relating to PV module performance with specific types of loads, e.g. resistors, DC motors etc, and understand the impact of max power point trackers, and design issues. The author has thought through the text from the readers' point of view: Every relevant angle was discussed and covered with clear text, plus wherever relevant, numerical calculation examples are given such that a reader can replicate in real-life situations.



A complaint and a couple of warnings. My one gripe: Much of the industry data in the book is "old", i.e. 2002-2003 vintage. I have access to more recent data, but an update to the book might be useful. Caution (who's this book for): If you're not an engineer by training, have no technical background, and don't like numbers, this book will be of limited use to you - though far from useless. Also, if you're an experienced engineer working in either solar or wind design, your main utility for this book will be as a reference, a quick overview of basics and less-used topics.



All in all, I was waiting for a book like this for a while. I'm glad I bought this, despite a discounted (conference) price above $120, and look forward to using it as a reference for a long time.
Reviews
I bought mainly for verification of wind stochastics (Weibull vs normal distribution questions). But I also work in solar energy as well. Found the text to be well written, sufficient formulas and derivations to understand and do necessary calculations, and a very useful reference. Not cheap, but a bargain for a working engineer. Have correlated wind section with other references, and although variable terms are slightly different, all seem to be verifiable with other sources.
Reviews
I've scoured several texts, journals and articles on renewable energy to make sense of the various technologies and their underlying economics, but wasn't until I stumbled upon this hidden treasure that the cloud lifted and the light dawned on my bewildered mind. And it took me a few months to scrub the book cover-to-cover - I was so taken in by the author's mastery of the subject matter and its concise, cogent and crystal-clear presentation.



Prof. Masters assumes nothing of the reader and takes her/him through a narrative that is just so-perfectly blended with rigorous, yet first-order analytical methods to enable the joyous discovery and lucid understanding of most of the major renewable sources of energy - from the gusty wind to the brilliant sun. He explains, proves and illustrates the logic, the math and the mechanics of the what, why and how it all works. He then gets under the hood and crunches the numbers (the economics) of if, when and where it all makes sense.



For instance, he'd prove Betz's law for the maximum efficiency of a wind turbine or derive the average wind power with a Rayleigh p.d.f by totally simplifying the convoluted math and soon follow it up with a practical example of whether it makes economic sense for a farmer to lease his land to a wind farm. Every concept is suffused with first-rate real-world examples:

* should a house in Boulder, CO use a single-axis tracker for a photo-voltaic installation? How about Madison, WI?

* what is the carbon spewed out by a coal-fired power plant? How does that compare to a combined cycle natural gas plant?



In addition to a fair amount of coverage of various renewable and distributed energy resources, a complete soup-to-nuts analysis of photo-voltaic design, sizing and analysis is presented. And it doesn't stop there. Energy efficiency is a major theme - ever heard of absorption cooling? All of this material is developed in the context of `basic electricity' that powers and runs most everything today (except vehicles of course, but that's also soon coming...) The beauty of it all is the seemingly effortless simplicity in which the concepts are explained/analysed without sacrificing rigor - it just flows!



In this age of hype and bias, a certain amount of disinformation coming from the media is understandable. But, living in Silicon Valley, I find it amusing to hear even respectable venture capitalists touting/undermining this technology or that without getting their facts/numbers right - perhaps they are vested or they are simply clueless, like I once was and still continue to be often. Whereas, having earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stanford, Prof. Masters has spent his entire lifetime around these issues (has been there, done that) and has distilled the better part of some of what he's learned into this book. Reading it is a bit like peering into a beautiful mind, indeed. Whether you are a serious student out to change the world, an academic do-gooder, a VC moneybag, a hobbyist moonlighter, I cannot recommend this book enough. It is by far, the best such introductory text in this field.


Reviews
Here is a book that is needed by those (especially engineers) interested in energy systems for the future. It has broad coverage and yet enough depth to allow design of new systems. Professor Masters' casual writing style and his sense of humor make the book fun to read.



The book covers wind systems, photovoltaic cells(PV) and PV systems, distributed generation (concentrating solar power, microhydro, fuel cells, biomass), and economics of renewable electric power generation and comparison with conventional thermal power plants. This book is important as the engineering world moves into the era of rising energy prices and is compelled to provide alternatives to fossil and nuclear fueled generation. There are abundant very helpful examples worked out in the text.



We used this book in a one semester introduction to renewable power taught as an elective for senior and first year graduate students. Since this was the first time the course was taught by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of NH, and our first time through the book, the course covered only a subset of chapters.



The book provides solid engineering background for topics discussed in applied "how to" books on renewable energy systems. It will appeal to that person who wants deeper understanding of principles. The ideas - both theoretical and practical - are carefully developed.



We read a good number of the problems at the end of the chapters we covered and assigned a subset of those. We found the book problems to be very enlightening and carefully thought out. Many of the problems provided profound insight and preparation for understanding and using the material studied. Even the first chapter on basic electrical and magnetic circuits has problems involving models for photovoltaic modules.



Michael J. Carter, Associate Professor of ECE at UNH

Filson H. Glanz, Professor Emeritus of ECE at UNH
Reviews
Gil Masters is a master teacher, as every page in this book makes clear. The best summary is found in the preface:



"Engineering for sustainability is an emerging theme for the twenty-first century, and the need for more environmentally benign electric power systems is a critical part of this new thrust. Renewable energy systems that take advantage of energy sources that won't diminish over time and are independent of fluctuations in price and availability are playing an ever-increasing role in modern power systems. Wind farms in the United States and Europe have become the fastest growing source of electric power; solar-powered photovoltaic systems are entering the marketplace; fuel cells that will generate electricity without pollution are on the horizon. Moreover, the newest fossil-fueled power plants approach twice the efficiency of the old coal burners that they are replacing while emitting only a tiny fraction of the pollution.



There are compelling reasons to believe that the traditional system of large, central power stations connected to their customers by hundreds or thousands of miles of transmission lines will likely be supplemented and eventually replaced with cleaner, smaller plants located closer to their loads. Not only do such distributed generation systems reduce transmission line losses and costs, but the potential to capture and utilize waste heat on site greatly increases their overall efficiency and economic advantages. Moreover, distributed generation systems offer increased reliability and reduced threat of massive and widespread power failures of the sort that blacked out much of the northeastern United States in the summer of 2003.



It is an exciting time in the electric power industry, worldwide. New technologies on both sides of the meter leading to structural changes in the way that power is provided and used, an emerging demand for electricity in the developing countries where some two billion people now live without any access to power, and increased attention being paid to the environmental impacts of power production are all leading to the need for new books, new courses, and a new generation of engineers who will find satisfying, productive careers in this newly transformed industry.



This book has been written primarily as a textbook for new courses on renewable and efficient electric power systems. It has been designed to encourage self-teaching by providing numerous completely worked examples throughout. Virtually every topic that lends itself to quantitative analysis is illustrated with such examples. Each chapter ends with a set of problems that provide added practice for the student and that should facilitate the preparation of homework assignments by the instructor.



While the book has been written with upper division engineering students in mind, it could easily be moved up or down in the curriculum as necessary. Since courses covering this subject are initially likely to have to stand more or less on their own, the book has been written to be quite self-sufficient. That is, it includes some historical, regulatory, and utility industry context as well as most of the electricity, thermodynamics, and engineering economy background needed to understand these new power technologies.



Engineering students want to use their quantitative skills, and they want to design things. This text goes well beyond just introducing how energy technologies work; it also provides enough technical background to be able to do first-order calculations on how well such systems will actually perform. That is, for example, given certain windspeed characteristics, how can we estimate the energy delivered from a wind turbine? How can we predict solar insolation and from that estimate the size of a photovoltaic system needed to deliver the energy needed by a water pump, a house, or an isolated communication relay station? How would we size a fuel cell to provide both electricity and heat for a building, and at what rate would hydrogen have to be supplied to be able to do so? How would we evaluate whether investments in these systems are rational economic decisions? That is, the book is quantitative and applications oriented with an emphasis on resource estimation, system sizing, and economic evaluation."

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