Renewable Energy and Climate Change (2nd ed.)
About this book
Renewable Energy and Climate Change, Second Edition, authored by Professor Volker Quaschning and published by Wiley in 2019, is one of the most comprehensive and accessible university-level textbooks available on the full spectrum of renewable energy technologies and their central role in preventing catastrophic climate change. Originally developed in German and subsequently translated and substantially expanded for international audiences, the book reflects Quaschning's dual commitment to scientific rigour and broad public understanding, drawing on more than two decades of teaching and research in renewable energy systems at HTW Berlin University of Applied Sciences. The book begins with a systematic examination of the global energy system — its scale, its structure, and the extraordinary degree to which it continues to depend on fossil fuels despite decades of climate science warnings.
Quaschning quantifies current energy demand across residential, industrial, and transport sectors, traces the origin of greenhouse gas emissions in energy conversion processes, and situates these data within the trajectory of global temperature increase projected by climate science. This opening analysis is not alarmist but precisely calibrated: the author establishes numerical targets for decarbonisation — the share of renewable energy required by mid-century, the annual rate of emissions reduction necessary to remain within 1.5°C pathways — giving readers a rigorous baseline against which the potential contribution of each technology discussed in subsequent chapters can be evaluated. The treatment of solar energy is among the most detailed in any introductory engineering text.
Quaschning covers the physics of solar radiation, the principles of photovoltaic conversion, and the engineering design of both grid-connected and off-grid PV systems, including detailed sizing calculations, shading analysis methods, and inverter selection criteria. Solar thermal technology — from domestic hot water collectors and building-integrated systems to large-scale concentrating solar power (CSP) plants using parabolic trough and power tower designs — receives equally thorough treatment, with worked numerical examples that enable readers to perform independent yield estimates. The author's own doctoral and post-doctoral research in PV system simulation gives the solar chapters a level of technical precision that sets this text apart from more general treatments of the subject.
Wind energy is introduced through the aerodynamic principles governing turbine power output, the statistical characterisation of wind resources using Weibull distributions, and the technological evolution from small distributed wind turbines to multi-megawatt offshore installations. The chapter addresses grid integration challenges — variability management, wind power forecasting, and the operational implications of high renewable penetration — that are central concerns in contemporary energy system planning. Biomass energy is examined across its principal conversion pathways, including direct combustion, anaerobic digestion for biogas production, gasification, and the production of liquid biofuels, with careful attention to the sustainability constraints — land use competition, water consumption, soil carbon impacts, and net carbon balance — that determine whether biomass use in the energy system delivers genuine climate benefits.
Geothermal energy, hydropower, and ocean energy (wave, tidal, and ocean thermal) each receive dedicated chapters that assess global resource potential, technology readiness levels, and environmental trade-offs with characteristic analytical thoroughness. The hydrogen chapter — substantially expanded in the second edition to reflect the rapid policy and investment interest in green hydrogen — addresses the production of electrolytic hydrogen from surplus renewable electricity, its storage and transport, and its role as a decarbonisation vector in hard-to-abate sectors including steel manufacturing, chemical production, and long-distance heavy transport. Quaschning applies consistent evaluative criteria across every technology: resource availability, conversion efficiency, capital cost trajectories, grid integration requirements, and lifecycle carbon emissions.
The policy and energy transition chapters draw primarily on European and German experience to examine the effectiveness of feed-in tariff systems, renewable portfolio standards, auction mechanisms, carbon pricing, and energy market design reforms in accelerating deployment. The second edition incorporates substantially updated data on the dramatic cost reductions in solar PV and wind power recorded over the previous decade, revised long-term capacity projections, and a strengthened analysis of the systemic changes — in grid infrastructure, seasonal storage, demand response programmes, and sector coupling between electricity, heat, and transport — required to achieve very high renewable shares in national and continental energy systems. With its combination of engineering depth, quantitative grounding, climate science framing, and policy analysis, this book is an indispensable reference for undergraduate and postgraduate students in engineering, environmental science, and energy policy, as well as for practitioners in renewable energy development, building performance, and climate strategy who require a reliable scientific foundation for professional decision-making.