Review of Wind Power (2004) by Adriana Popescu

Reveiw by Adriana Popescu, Plasma Physics Librarian, Princeton University Library in www.e-streams.com.

Written by the well-known wind power expert and advocate Paul Gipe, this title is an expanded edition of the work Wind Power: Renewable Energy for Home and Business (1993) that draws on the author’s extensive experience with wind energy. Keeping up with his reputation of wind energy guru, Paul Gipe gives us another well organized, beautifully illustrated, comprehensive, and easy to read book on the subject.

The book explains how to use the wind, what to expect from a wind system (in terms of energy output and financial savings), gives guidelines on evaluating the current status of wind technology, instructs on how to buy a wind system and install it (off the grid or interconnected with the grid), and how to operate and maintain the system (including safety issues to be considered). For anyone ready to put the wind to use, this book gives the reader all the knowledge and theoretical tools needed.

Very clear and easy-to-read writing style is what makes this book so appealing to a wide audience, from the non-technical but interested and curious about wind energy homeowner to the professional utility employee. The book is loaded with diagrams, charts, tables and drawings and beautifully illustrated with color photographs of wind systems in use from all over the world. The 59 pages of appendices are extremely well organized and they offer useful, up to date information ranging from conversion tables (international standard units to US units), maps of world wind energy resources, characteristics of selected small wind turbines and list of small wind turbine manufacturers, to a multilingual lexicon. Includes bibliography and a glossary of wind energy terminology.

Recommended for applied science and technology collections at all levels.

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