The Smart Grid: Enabling Energy Efficiency and Demand Response
by Clark W. Gellings, 2009

While there is lots of domain knowledge in this book, it is just screaming out for a copy editor’s help. There is no flow to the book; no overall plan. It reads like a series of commissioned technical white papers strung together. Because I’m interested in both Energy Efficiency and Demand Response, I was just disappointed in the final result. Oh well, not recommended.

Energy Shift: Game-Changing Options for Fueling the Future
by Eric Spiegel and Neil McArthur with Rob Norton, 2009

This book comes from the “strategy+business” series of the consulting firm Booz & Company. I used to work for Booz Allen Hamilton (mostly government contracting), which spun off Booz & Company (mostly private contracting) a few years before I started.

The book is a good overview of relevant energy issues for business executives. It describes the change and uncertainty in energy procurement and generation in the coming decades. It’s a little bit “higher level” than most of the other stuff I’ve been reading lately and thus provides broad-stroke guidance to business executives looking to stay in front of energy issues. It focuses on a few of the most relevant issues and is a quick read. It is peppered with sidebar essays by executives in the energy field. While it was written in 2009, I found 90% of the information to still be accurate in 2015.

Energy for the 21st Century: A Comprehensive Guide to Conventional and Alternative Sources
by Roy L. Nersesian, 2007

This textbook covers energy generation (from biomass, coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, hydropower, wind, solar, wave, hydrogen fuel cells) in depth. It has a good discussion of the deregulation of the US energy market. The chapter about biomass production was particularly interesting, though such an energy source will not play a large role in generation of developed countries. I did not read the two chapters about oil, as I imagine they are out of date (written in 2007) with the boom of shale oil nowadays. Recommended for people wanting a background in all things energy for research (i.e. me), but beware that it is a slow textbook-like read.

Energy Efficiency
by Penni McLean-Conner, 2009

This book provides a high-level overview of current energy efficiency efforts and possible future solutions. I found it to be one of those books that emphasizes breadth instead of depth, trying to cover everything at least a little bit. This led to the feeling that nothing important was being said, and I ended up quickly skimming most of the book.