Powering the dream [electronic resource] : the history and promise of green technology / Alexis Madrigal.
Madrigal, Alexis, 1982-
2011
TJ808.7.U6 M33 2011eb
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Title Powering the dream [electronic resource] : the history and promise of green technology / Alexis Madrigal.
Author Madrigal, Alexis, 1982-
ISBN 9780306819773 (electronic bk.)
9780306818851
Imprint Cambridge, Mass. : Da Capo Press, 2011.
Language English
Description 1 online resource (xiv, 365 p.) : ill.
Call Number TJ808.7.U6 M33 2011eb
Dewey Decimal Classification 338.9/27
Summary "Few today realize that electric cabs dominated Manhattan's streets in the 1890s; that Boise, Idaho, had a geothermal heating system in 1910; or that the first megawatt turbine in the world was built in 1941 by the son of publishing magnate G. P. Putnam--a feat that would not be duplicated for another forty years. Likewise, while many remember the oil embargo of the 1970s, few are aware that it led to a corresponding explosion in green-technology research that was only derailed when energy prices later dropped.In other words: We've been here before. Although we may have failed, America has had the chance to put our world on a more sustainable path. Americans have, in fact, been inventing green for more than a century.Half compendium of lost opportunities, half hopeful look toward the future, Powering the Dream tells the stories of the brilliant, often irascible inventors who foresaw our current problems, tried to invent cheap and energy renewable solutions, and drew the blueprint for a green future"-- Provided by publisher.
"This book looks at the history of alternative energy (solar, wind)"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Available in Other Form Powering the dream.
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1: The dream of a more perfect power
Profit, salvation
The first green-technology futurist
The utopia commercial
Prescribing for the globe itself
2: What was
Steam-powered America
The wind and the West
The parable of Petrolia
Wave motors and airplanes
Compressed air and electricity
3: What might have been
The National Electric Transportation System that almost was
Solar hot water, day and night
The solar home of the 1950s
The Solar Energy Research Institute
The meaning of Luz
How to burn a biological library
4: Lessons from the Great Energy Rethink
What happens when an energy system breaks
Thermodynamics
Transcendentalism
Tools
Technology
5: Innovation and the future
Google's RE < C challenge
The first megawatt and failing smart
What green tech can learn from nuclear power's rise and fall
The 5-cent turbine and the siren call of the breakthrough
Energy storage and the return of compressed air
"Throw software at the problem"
Rehumanizing environmentalism.

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