NGO Christian, Energy: Resources, Technologies and the Environment, The Institution of Engineering and Technology, 2010
(200 pages, 36€)
Christian Ngô was formerly executive general manager of ECRIN (Echange et Coordination Recherche-Industrie) and scientific director of the Atomic Energy’s High Commissioner Office (CEA).
Commentary
This commentary concerns the french edition of the book.
Christian Ngo’s book has the ambition to provide a quick 360° overview on energies (most of which are being covered), summarizing core knowledge for each of them, and pointing the reader to more resources for potential further reading.
Most of the interest of this quick to read book lies in its last pages: an 86 references bibliography to go deeper on topics covered (with references to the pages where they are covered).
Although short, this book tries hard to be exhaustive: all energy sources and their relative magnitudes are mentioned, even insignificant ones. One may feel that for each topic considered separately, too little is being said, but that’s precisely the purpose of the bibliography.
Another major interest of the book is its coverage of the challenging issue of energy storage, which will become a major one as soon as fossil energies we current use will be lacking (as they both act as energy source and storage), either because we consciously choose to limit their consumption to preserve the environment, or because we simply exhaust them.