Promotional Information

Provocative, refreshingly quantitative, and mandatory reading for decision makers. -- Donald R. Sadoway, John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry, MIT Vaclav Smil highlights power density as an essential ingredient for evaluating energy systems that is often forgotten or neglected in making sound energy choices. Smil correctly points out with numerous examples the importance of power density in determining how energy recovery and utilization systems are designed and operated. -- Jefferson Tester, Croll Professor of Sustainable Energy Systems and Cornell Energy Institute Director, Cornell University

About the Author

Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of forty books, including Energy and Civilization, published by the MIT Press. In 2010 he was named by Foreign Policy as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers. In 2013 Bill Gates wrote on his website that "there is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil."