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Title: The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the World-Wide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth by Jeremy Rifkin ISBN: 1-58542-193-6 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: 12 September, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.96 (23 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent introduction to this issue
Comment: Even though Rifkin doesn't start talking about hydrogen until the seventh chapter, he lays out a convincing case for why we need to shift away from fossil fuels. Even though I disagreed with some of Rifkin's philosophical conclusions on why we need to switch, the facts (that we are nearing the peak production of oil, that the remaining oil is held by Islamic states that are politically unstable and global warming is increasing) are hard to dispute. I wouldn't suggest this as the only book to read on the hydrogen economy but it should be the first one you read.
Rating: 2
Summary: Remember the Second Law
Comment: This book is useful in pointing out the problems with the fossil fuel system and in describing the hydrogen economy as part of the solution. It seems that automobiles will have to be powered by hydrogen as almost the only practical choice when fossil fuels run out.
The book is long on describing the problems of fossil fuels and short and non-specific on the solutions. Rifkin discusses everything from the fall of the Roman Empire to the differences between Islam and Christianity.
The discussion of the use of hydrogen and fuel cells to power cars is the best part of the book, although there are too few numbers and details. Then the author makes a confusing argument in favor of distributed generation of power using fuel cells, again with hydrogen as a fuel. But all the hydrogen has to be produced from electricity in the first place. You can't use electricity to generate hydrogen and then use hydrogen to generate electricity. This is a perpetual motion machine. Therefore the whole conclusion of the book that the world will be powered by distributed generation is very questionable. A better book is Eco-Economy by Lester Brown.
Rating: 5
Summary: Criticizing what they haven't read
Comment: I just want to correct one recurrent misunderstanding of Rifkin's thesis. I note that several one-star reviews of this book included a caveat to the effect that the reviewers had not even read the book. They go on to point out that since energy is required to free hydrogen in the first place, hydrogen is not an energy source but at best a form of stored energy, and not yet a terribly efficent form at that. (One reviewer from Florida even got his/her one-star review entered mulitple times! Were each of these identical entries counted against the over-all rating of this book??) Having heard Rifkin interviewed on the energy source/storage issue, I believe that these one-star reviewers have missed the point. Rifkin is advocating for hydrogen precisely as the future's medium of energy storage. Say the energy is initally gathered through solar panels. You need a way to store the surplus. Use the surplus photo-electricity to free some hydrogen from water, store the hydrogen. The energy sources of tomorrow are solar, wind, etc. The battery of tomorrow that makes these sources viable, in as much as civilization depends on the ability to accrue a surplus, is hydrogen.
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Title: Tomorrow's Energy: Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and the Prospects for a Cleaner Planet by Peter Hoffmann ISBN: 026258221X Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 09 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Powering the Future: The Ballard Fuel Cell and the Race to Change the World by Tom Koppel ISBN: 0471644218 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 29 September, 1999 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: Fuel from Water: Energy Independence With Hydrogen by Michael A. Peavey, Michael Peavey ISBN: 0945516045 Publisher: Merit Products Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Biotech Century: Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World by Jeremy Rifkin ISBN: 0874779537 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era by Jeremy Rifkin, Robert L. Heilbroner ISBN: 0874778247 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: April, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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