Power Engineering Advances and Challenges, Part A: Thermal, Hydro and Nuclear Power

Faced with the climate change phenomena, humanity has had to now contend with numerous changes, including our attitude environment protection, and also with depletion of classical energy resources. These have had consequences in the power production sector, which was already struggling with negative public opinion on nuclear energy, but a favorable perception of renewable energy resources. The objective of this edited volume is to review all these changes and to present solutions for future power generation.

PROGRESS IN THERMAL, HYDRO AND NUCLEAR CLASSICAL TECHNOLOGIES. Understanding of the Flexibility from Combined Cycle Gas Turbine Plant. Directions for improving the flexibility of coal-fired units in an era of increasing potential of renewable energy sources. Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Power Cycles. Nuclear power. Next generation of nuclear reactors. Hydropower. ADVANCES IN RENEWABLE ENERGY-BASED THERMAL TECHNOLOGIES. Geothermal Power. Power to gas conversion technologies and related systems. Stationary Fuel Cells and Hybrid Systems. Biopower technologies. Energy plantations value-added options. New efficient and ecologic energy vectors (solid biomass-hydrogen). STORAGE OF THERMAL ENERGY. Thermal energy storage technologies. Impact of energy storage systems value-added options.

Viorel Badescu is affiliated with Candida Oancea Institute at Polytechnic University of Bucharest. Main fields of research are physics of radiation, solar radiation availability, photovoltaic and photothermal conversion of solar energy, optimal control of thermal engineering processes, passive buildings, macroengineering, statistical physics and thermodynamics, with results reported in more than 250 papers and 30 books. He is corresponding member of the Romanian Academy.George Lazaroiu, PhD, is Associate Professor at Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, NY Spiru Haret University, Bucharest.Linda Barelli is Associate Professor at Department of Engineering, University if Perugia.