wind farmAIP to publish proceedings of sustainable energy conference

February 19, 2008 – Business and industry today are demanding new energy technologies – technologies that use energy more efficiently and that rely on renewable resources. These new sources will be counted on to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, stem reliance of limited or foreign energy sources, and help solve a range of problems caused by existing energy sources.

In response, the American Physical Society's Forum on Physics and Society (FPS) and the American Association of Physics Teachers have organized a short course on "The Physics of Sustainable Energy: Using Energy Efficiently and Producing It Renewably." The conference will be held March 1-2, 2008 at the University of California, Berkeley and its proceedings will be published in the summer of 2008 as part of the American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings series.

Previous energy publications now free online

The new AIP proceedings volume will be the third in a series of seminal publications that have sprung from APS conferences on energy technology, dating back to the early 1970s – a time when physicists were becoming more involved in societal issues. In the wake of the 1974 oil embargo, APS organized a summer study devoted to the efficient use of energy. The report of that study, was published as AIP Conference Proceeding No. 25, Technical Aspects of the More Efficient Utilization of Energy. Several of the participants, including Art Rosenfeld, dedicated the rest of their careers to applying physics to emerging public needs.

A decade later, AIP Conference Proceeding No. 135, surveyed the considerable progress that had been made. This book was based on a short course organized in 1985 by APS FPS to examine Energy Sources: Conservation and Renewables. The volume provides information that is still useful today in a large variety of technologies that seek to both produce and use energy more efficiently. The reduced demand for energy that resulted from the application of these technologies has had a bigger impact on energy supplies than any gains we've made since through new technologies.

Much of the basic physics contained in the first two AIP Conference Proceedings remains valid today. Unfortunately, the hard-bound books are out of print. AIP is now making them available online for the first time free of charge. Please use the following links to access the appropriate Proceedings.

  AIP Conference Proceeding No. 25 - Technical Aspects of the More Efficient Utilization of Energy

  AIP Conference Proceeding No. 135 - Energy Sources: Conservation and Renewables

For more information on the Energy Short Course contact:
Barbara G. Levi
Consulting Editor, Physics Today

For more information on the AIP Conference Proceedings contact:
Maya Flikop
516 576 2460
Email: