Taming the Sun, Varun Sivaram
Taming the Sun, Varun Sivaram
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Taming the Sun
Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet

Author: Varun Sivaram

Narrator: Barry Abrams

Unabridged: 11 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/12/2018

Synopsis

Solar energy, once a niche application for a limited market, has become the cheapest and fastest-growing power source on earth. What's more, its potential is nearly limitless. But in Taming the Sun, energy expert Varun Sivaram warns that the world is not yet equipped to harness erratic sunshine to meet most of its energy needs. And if solar's current surge peters out, prospects for replacing fossil fuels and averting catastrophic climate change will dim.

Innovation can brighten those prospects, Sivaram explains. Financial innovation is already enticing deep-pocketed investors to fund solar projects around the world. Technological innovation could replace today's solar panels with coatings as cheap as paint and employ artificial photosynthesis to store intermittent sunshine as convenient fuels. And systemic innovation could add flexibility to the world's power grids and other energy systems so they can dependably channel the sun's unreliable energy.

Unleashing all this innovation will require visionary public policy: funding researchers developing next-generation solar technologies, refashioning energy systems and economic markets, and putting together a diverse clean energy portfolio. Although solar can't power the planet by itself, it can be the centerpiece of a global clean energy revolution.

About Varun Sivaram

Varun Sivaram is the Philip D. Reed Fellow for Science and Technology at the Council on Foreign Relations. He teaches "Clean Energy Innovation" at Georgetown University, is a Fellow at Columbia University's Center for Global Energy Policy, and serves on Stanford University's energy and environment boards. He has advised both the mayor of Los Angeles and the governor of New York on energy and was formerly a consultant at McKinsey & Co. He holds a PhD in condensed matter physics from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. PV Magazine called him "The Hamilton of the Solar Industry," Forbes named him one of its 30 under 30, and Grist selected him as one of the top 50 leaders in sustainability.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Mario the lone bookwolf on June 26, 2021

Varum is an expert in his field and describes the state of the art technology, its possibilities, possible dangers and some alternative, pessimistic future timelines. Always there, always shining, giving so vast amounts of energy that we should better power everything that way, using advanced and sub......more

Goodreads review by Chris on March 20, 2018

I have been reading a lot about renewable energy recently, and this is by far the best book I have read to understand the entire solar energy landscape and limitations. Thank you!......more

Goodreads review by Charlene on March 13, 2019

I didn't realize how much I didn't know about harvesting the energy of the sun. Without exaggeration, my very favorite thing in the world to think about and study is how forms take in, circulate, and expel energy. It's an obsession really. People, especially people in my family, are sick of me talki......more

Goodreads review by Andrea on October 05, 2019

My rating might be a little harsh. This book is a comprehensive and technically detailed survey of large-scale solar power generation and grid-based distribution. I also work in the tech industry where it touches renewable energy and preventing future catastrophe, and from this perspective I have a......more

Goodreads review by J.P. on January 16, 2019

Listened to on Audible. Very informative and fascinating, whether you're interested in renewables, technology and innovation or the environment (and where it's going), or for those with business/entrepreneurial interests. Highly recommended.......more

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