The Energy System: Technology, Economics, Markets, and Policy

by Travis Bradford

Overview

A comprehensive textbook that integrates tools from technology, economics, markets, and policy to approach energy issues using a dynamic systems and capital-centric perspective.

The global energy system is the vital foundation of modern human industrial society. Traditionally studied through separate disciplines of engineering, economics, environment, or public policy, this system can be fully understood only by using an approach that integrates these tools. This textbook is the first to take a dynamic systems perspective on understanding energy systems, tracking energy from primary resource to final energy services through a long and capital-intensive supply chain bounded by both macroeconomic and natural resource systems.

The book begins with a framework for understanding how energy is transformed as it moves through the system with the aid of various types of capital, its movement influenced by a combination of the technical, market, and policy conditions at the time. It then examines the three primary energy subsystems of electricity, transportation, and thermal energy, explaining such relevant topics as systems thinking, cost estimation, capital formation, market design, and policy tools. Finally, the book reintegrates these subsystems and looks at their relation to the economic system and the ecosystem that they inhabit. Practitioners and theorists from any field will benefit from a deeper understanding of both existing dynamic energy system processes and potential tools for intervention.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262037525
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	08/21/2018
Series:	The MIT Press
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	1216
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Travis Bradford is a Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University and former head of the energy and environment graduate program at the School of International and Public Affairs. He teaches and develops curriculum for hundreds of graduate students every year across the policy, business, sustainability, and engineering schools. He is the author of Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industry, founder and President of Prometheus Institute, and advisor to many public and private entities on energy and business strategy.

What People are Saying About This

Endorsement

Our energy system is transforming rapidly, through complex interactions of science and technology, public policy, economics, and human behavior. Bradford's book is an essential guide for understanding the system's current state, and how it may evolve. This comprehensive textbook provides a powerful framework for assessing the challenges and opportunities we face, and will be an indispensable resource for industry leaders, policymakers, informed citizens, and other stakeholders. I am thrilled to share this unique resource with my students!

—Daniel Vermeer, Associate Professor, Fuqua School of Business; Executive Director, Center for Energy, Development, and the Global Environment, Duke University

From the Publisher

Travis Bradford has written a vital and innovative textbook where students and practitioners alike will find the necessary tools to effectively analyze the various components of the global energy system.

—Michael Polsky, Founder & CEO, Invenergy

Our energy system is transforming rapidly, through complex interactions of science and technology, public policy, economics, and human behavior. Bradford's book is an essential guide for understanding the system's current state, and how it may evolve. This comprehensive textbook provides a powerful framework for assessing the challenges and opportunities we face, and will be an indispensable resource for industry leaders, policymakers, informed citizens, and other stakeholders. I am thrilled to share this unique resource with my students!

—Daniel Vermeer, Associate Professor, Fuqua School of Business; Executive Director, Center for Energy, Development, and the Global Environment, Duke University