Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy is a 2007 book by Australian Academic Mark Diesendorf. The book puts forward a set of policies and strategies for implementing the most promising clean energy technologies by all spheres of government, business and community organizations. Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy suggests a mix of energy efficient, renewable energy sources, and natural gas (as a transitional fuel).

The book is a comprehensive guide to sustainable energy systems and is structured in three sections:

Early in his career, Mark Diesendorf was a leading research scientist with CSIRO where he was involved in early research on integrating wind power into electricity grids. This issue is discussed in some detail in Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy. Diesendorf explains that large-scale wind power is not “intermittent”, because it does not start up or switch off instantaneously. In practice, the variations in wind turbines, spread out over several different sites and wind regimes, are smoothed. As the distance between sites increases, the correlation between the wind speeds measured at these sites, decreases. Graham Sinden from Oxford University: [Graham Sinden] analyzed over 30 years of wind speed data from 66 sites spread over the United Kingdom. He found that the correlation coefficient of wind power fell from 0.6 at 200 km to 0.25 at 600 km separation (a perfect correlation would have a coefficient equal to 1.0.) There were no hours in the data set where wind speed was below the cut- in wind speed of a modern wind turbine in the United Kingdom, and low wind speed events affecting more than 90 per cent of the United Kingdom had an average recurrent rate of one hour per year. Diesendorf goes on to say that all the power of the station is broken down. That is true intermittency, according to Diesendorf, and it is a particular type of variability that switches between full power and no power. Once a station has broken down, it can be offline for weeks, much longer than windless periods.

Add in chapters on saving energy and transport and urban redesign and Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy The effects of all the features of the climate change. In the case of Greenhouse Solutions, it is necessary to check the situation with the Green Energy Solutions. Patrick O’Neill, in Chain Reaction, suggests that Greenhouse Solutions is a comprehensive guide to sustainable energy systems, and that the book is simply a joy to read. O ‘ Neill explains that while a huge amount of technical and scientific detail is presented, the language is simple and the book is well laid out. It also covers the issues of social issues, morality, social justice and equity. In conclusion, O’Neill states that the book is a wonderfully energizing piece of sedition, which calls for a national strategy for non-violent action. George Wilkenfield, in Australian Review of Public Affairs, is more critical and suggests the book feels “strangely anachronistic”, partly because it is an issue that can be resolved through grassroots activism or by the opposition of protest movements to unjust schemes. Wilkenfield explains that ” This is not the case that the global recovery is not a byproduct of injustice or repression but of economic freedom in the West and the unrelenting economic growth by which repressive regimes such as China’s buy legitimacy. In general, very few people want to be freed from consumption-most want the freedom to consume even more. “Wilkenfield goes on to say that Diesendorf misses some of the dynamics of consumption: energy use gives people comfort, speed, privacy and convenience. Many people actually enjoy driving their cars, and they would still be able to afford them, even if they are still in the market. Nevertheless, Wilkenfield concedes that Greenhouse Solutions is textbook, or as a handbook for activists,

Mark Diesendorf teaches and researches ecologically sustainable development and greenhouse solutions at the Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of NSW. Previously he has been Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO, Professor of Environmental Science at UTS and Vice President of the New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics.

* Diesendorf, Mark (2007). Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy, UNSW Press, 432 pages,