Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Global warming, Arctic oil drilling, and the vanishing ozone layer are all enormous environmental problems with no clear solutions - or so conventional wisdom goes. But in the tiny town of Appalachian, Ohio, a small group of engineers under the guidance of a visionary eccentric named William Beale is challenging that conventional wisdom in an audacious attempt to transform the way the world makes and uses energy.
Their "ultimate machine" - a solar-powered Stirling engine - resembles nothing the world has ever seen, and it carries an enormous burden of hope for the future of the planet. Should they succeed, a patch of desert 170 miles square could generate all the energy needs of the United States virtually pollution-free.
- Mark Shelton's exciting narrative takes us inside the laboratories and engine shops of Sunpower, Inc., where Beale and his colleagues are harnessing space-age technology to an idea as old as the steam engine. A working prototype of the Stirling engine is already capable of running an individual house, but enormous obstacles remain: lack of funding, and the preference of the American public and private sectors for getting their energy the good old-fashioned way.
Like Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New Machine, Shelton's insightful account has the inherent drama of a report from the frontier, a frontier that might well produce the next great technological advance for the human race.
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Previews available in: English
Subjects
Solar engines, Stirling engines, Sunpower (Firm)Showing 1 featured edition. View all 1 editions?
Edition | Availability |
---|---|
1
The next great thing: the sun, the Stirling engine, and the drive to change the world
1994, W.W. Norton
in English
0393036197 9780393036190
|
aaaa
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
Book Details
Edition Notes
Includes index.
Classifications
The Physical Object
ID Numbers
Community Reviews (0)
Feedback?History
- Created April 1, 2008
- 11 revisions
Wikipedia citation
×CloseCopy and paste this code into your Wikipedia page. Need help?
July 25, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
January 17, 2023 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
May 9, 2021 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
November 17, 2020 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
April 1, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from Scriblio MARC record |