Small-Scale Renewable Energy Systems: Independent Electricity for Community, Business, and Home

Authors

Sven Ruin, Göran Sidén

ISBN: 9781041211822

Published: 5 May 2026 — Second Edition

Format: Hardcover, 238 pages, 151 B/W illustrations

Language: English

Publisher: CRC Press (Taylor & Francis)

Description

Small-Scale Renewable Energy Systems: Independent Electricity for Community, Business, and Home explores the ongoing revolution in small-scale energy solutions that enable environmental sustainability, supply resilience, and energy independence. It introduces readers to diverse renewable energy sources, energy storage technologies, and smart consumption strategies, with particular focus on designing systems that operate independently from the conventional power grid.

Readers will discover how to effectively combine multiple energy sources into hybrid systems, optimise system architecture for different scales of implementation, and apply smart controls — including open-source solutions — to maximise efficiency. This second edition is updated throughout and adds new practical case studies of homes, businesses, and communities that have achieved significant energy independence or are progressing toward it.

Key Features

• Fully updated second edition with new practical case studies.
• Broad overview of renewable energy technology development and its challenges, focused on small-scale applications.
• Detailed real-world case studies of homes, businesses and communities achieving energy independence.
• Practical guidance on integrating multiple renewable sources, storage solutions and smart controls into resilient off-grid systems.
• Coverage of open-source control solutions for system optimisation.

Coverage

Solar power · Wind power · Hydropower · Geothermal · Bioenergy · Engine-driven generators · Wave and tidal power · Battery basics and chemistries (lead-acid, nickel-based, lithium-based) · Battery monitoring · Energy use across sectors · Efficient use of energy in the commercial sector · System design for off-grid and hybrid configurations · Case studies.

About the Authors

Sven Ruin is an experienced engineer and consultant who has worked with renewable energy in Sweden and several other countries. One of his specialities is hybrid systems, in which different generation technologies are combined — for example, for off-grid power supply. He has participated in the IEA's small wind task force and in international standards development.

Göran Sidén is a retired Associate Professor in Power Engineering. He was responsible for developing the renewable-energy-focused energy engineering programme at Halmstad University, Sweden. He developed a course in Wind Power Technology as early as 1994, followed by courses in Solar Energy and Renewable Energy, and has served as CEO and board member of companies that built and operated wind turbines.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Electricity Generation
3. Energy Storage
4. Use of Energy and Electricity
5. System Design
6. Case Studies
Appendix 1
Index

Why buy this book?

Grid reliability is no longer a settled question. Rising electricity prices, extreme weather events and the electrification of heat and transport have pushed distributed generation from a niche interest to a mainstream engineering problem. This is one of the few technical texts that treats small-scale systems with the same rigour usually reserved for utility-scale plant — with the formulas, the certified turbine performance data, and the design methodology that practitioners actually need. Useful equally to consulting engineers specifying hybrid systems, to teaching departments running renewable energy programmes, and to businesses and communities planning their own supply.

Keywords

Small-scale renewable energy, off-grid electricity, hybrid energy systems, solar power, wind power, battery storage, microgrid design, energy independence, distributed generation, smart controls, community energy, renewable energy engineering

Target Audience

Renewable energy practitioners and consultants, power and energy engineers, bachelor's and master's students in renewable energy programmes, businesses and communities developing sustainable energy initiatives, technical and university libraries

Genre

Renewable Energy, Energy Engineering, Clean Energy, Sustainability

Questions & Answers

What is a hybrid renewable energy system?
It is a system that combines two or more generation technologies — typically solar PV with wind, and often with a generator or battery bank — so that the weaknesses of one source are covered by another. Chapter 5 sets out how to size and architect these combinations.

Which battery chemistry is right for an off-grid installation?
It depends on cycle life, depth of discharge, temperature range and budget. Chapter 3 compares lead-acid, nickel-based and lithium-based chemistries on each of these dimensions, along with battery monitoring requirements.

Can a household or business realistically achieve energy independence?
Chapter 6 documents real installations that have done so, or are close to it, with the technical configuration and the constraints each project faced. The honest answer is that it depends heavily on load profile and location — which is exactly what the case studies illustrate.

How do smart controls improve small-scale renewable system efficiency?
By matching consumption to generation in real time and managing storage state of charge. The book covers open-source control solutions, which have become viable alternatives to proprietary systems.

Where can I buy Small-Scale Renewable Energy Systems?
The second edition is available from CLNZ Books at clnzbooks.com. The price includes worldwide shipping via trusted international courier, and payment can be made by credit card or PayPal.

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