Green Energy (WIRED guides): How to build a sustainable future

Fossil fuels may be keeping the world running, but they’re also destroying the planet. What viable alternatives do we have, and what technological breakthroughs are on the horizon?

In this brilliantly wide-ranging, one-stop guide WIRED journalist Nicole Kobie outlines the environmental threats we face through our reliance on carbon-based energy, and considers whether and when sustainable energy can take its place. She looks at the major technologies currently available – solar, wind and geothermal among them – explaining how they work and what potential they possess. She shows how electricity supply is being transformed by advances in storage and distribution. She assesses how each form of energy is being adapted to serve our industrial and domestic needs. And she addresses the fundamental question: can the world’s energy supply become fully sustainable within the next decade?

Fossil fuels may be keeping the world running, but they’re also destroying the planet. What viable alternatives do we have, and what technological breakthroughs are on the horizon?

In this brilliantly wide-ranging, one-stop guide WIRED journalist Nicole Kobie outlines the environmental threats we face through our reliance on carbon-based energy, and considers whether and when sustainable energy can take its place. She looks at the major technologies currently available – solar, wind and geothermal among them – explaining how they work and what potential they possess. She shows how electricity supply is being transformed by advances in storage and distribution. She assesses how each form of energy is being adapted to serve our industrial and domestic needs. And she addresses the fundamental question: can the world’s energy supply become fully sustainable within the next decade?