"For a variety of reasons: geologic, geographic, geopolitical, and environmental—an energy transformation is already underway, but it will take massive investments, technological breakthroughs and thoughtful management as the transition proceeds. As the Administration (and world leaders) grapple with the dual challenges of energy security and climate change, technology, timing, and scalable delivery systems will be key components in any solution. Weiss and Bonvillian lay out a comprehensive roadmap for guiding policymakers through somewhat uncharted terrain by identifying pathways to successful development and deployment of innovative technologies and make a persuasive case for global cooperative efforts. This is a must-read for sustainable energy futurists!" - Frank Verrastro, Director and Senior Fellow, Energy and National Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies

 

"This extraordinary book by Charles Weiss and William Bonvillian offers a four-step framework for analysis and action to meet America's need for secure, sustainable, and affordable clean energy. The most technologically advanced and innovative nation on the planet has seemed unable to meet this need because our traditional innovation processes are inadequate. Generating, distributing, and using energy in 21st century America, because of its scale, complexity, and in-place infrastructure, is totally unlike the narrow goals of the oft-cited Apollo or Manhattan Projects. Furthermore, the multitude of technologies and the potential for unpredictable breakthroughs rules out a classical technology roadmap. Weiss and Bonvillian combine experience, analysis, and realpolitik to present a roadmap not for energy technology itself, but for the public-private process to fund, produce, and insert energy innovations into the economy." Charles M. Vest, fromer President, National Academy of Engineering, President Emeritus, MIT

 

“Yes we can! Indeed this is a book for these times. Providing a new vocabulary and new categories, the authors advance urgently needed conversation about how government can spur the innovations in the energy system that will mitigate climate change. Anyone interested in seeing real progress made by biofuels, renewable electricity, nuclear power, carbon dioxide capture and sequestration, or auto and building efficiency should read this book.” - Robert H. Socolow, Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Co-director, the Carbon Mitigation Initiative, Princeton University

 

“This book provides in a single volume, a clear and beautifully written review of innovation theory and energy technology. It then uses these insights to propose a practical framework for designing a national policy on energy and climate that draws both on theory and on the author’s extensive practical insights into what can actually be achieved through public policy. Anyone interested in designing an energy policy that actually work, escaping ideological battles and the passions of single technology advocates, should read this book.” - Henry Kelly, former President, Federation of American Scientists

 

“To address global warming, one of the great challenges has always been how to drive innovation in the energy sector. Weiss and Bonvillian peer into this black box and emerge with a blueprint for prosperity at a time when the nation desperately needs it. The links between technology policy and progress have never been clearer.” Timothy Profeta, Founding Director, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University

 

“The authors have taken on the enormously important task of describing a workable public policy framework that is needed for transforming our energy systems to a fully sustainable state. Finally a book that not only covers all the critical issues and technology options, but also describes them in a manner which is objective, rational and digestible.” Jefferson W. Tester – Croll Professor of Sustainable Energy Systems, and Director of the Cornell Energy Institute, Cornell University

 

"Structuring an Energy Technology Revolution has the great virtue of being a learned, thoughful discussion of complicated economic, technical, and political issues that is almost shockingly readable, clear, and devoid of excessive jargon and impenatreable puffery." - Ray Bert, Executive Director, AABC Commissioning Group, in Civil Engineering

 

"Establishing an effective innovation system for energy technology is no easy task. It has to supply sufficient alternatives to the old-style use of fossil fuels, be hospitable to private investment, and not be a boondoggle for bureaucrats or vested interests. This will take considerable political will. It is clear that this political discipline has to come from an informed public. To give us the information we need is the mission of this far-seeing work. Structuring An Energy Technology Revolution shows us how our already intertwined government, science and business communities could actually begin to solve these problems. Will they? Will we step up? I highly recommend this book. Beautifully written, the authors' broad grasp and effective presentation of these complexities gives us an almost panoramic view of the subject with the insider's command of details. If you're at all serious about following or shaping our economic, energy and environmental future, this book is necessary reading." - Vicky Ingram, Univ. of Virginia Libraries

 

“This book lays out a systemic plan for research development and demonstration of new energy technologies to radically reduce dependence on carbon in the U.S. It focuses on opportunities and the pitfalls along the patj to new energy technologies with the apparent assumption that high levels of energy use comparable to present levels must be sustained and extended in the world. The revolution analyzed is entirely in the technologies. The book has received warm pre-publication praise from a spectrum of spokespersons from the American research and energy policy establishment. In American jargon, it might be called a book written from ‘inside the beltway.’…The[ir] roadmap covers a wide variety of energy technology options in the framework of a strategy designed to avoid early ‘winner picking….’” Cooper H. Langford, Professor, University of Calgary, Science and Public Policy