Publications and Presentations

Select publications and presentations available electronically

• Information about my book, Power Loss:  The Origins of Deregulation and Restructuring in the American Electric Utility System. (MIT Press, Dec. 1999. Available through NetLibrary to subscribers.)

• Dr. Hirsh served as a member of the advisory committee that produced the 2009 report, "Energy Efficiency in Appalachia," which can be found at the website of the Appalachian Regional Commission.
• “Beyond Batteries: An Examination of the Benefits and Barriers to Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) and a Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) Transition,” (with Benjamin K. Sovacool), Energy Policy 37 (Mar.. 2009): 1095-1103. 

• “Island Wind Energy: A Significant Potential U.S. Resource,” (with Benjamin K. Sovacool), Renewable Energy 33 (August 2008): 1928-35.

• "Energy Crises and Energy Solutions: Why technology is NOT the total solution," presentation at Mississippi State University, 20 February 2008.
• "Electricity Policy in the 1970s: The Bizarre and Unanticipated Driver of Utility System Restructuring in the 1990s and Beyond," paper presented at University of Houston Conference on American Energy Policy in the 1970s, 9-10 November 2007.
• “Assessing U.S. Energy Policy,” (Comment, with Marilyn A. Brown and Benjamin K. Sovacool), Daedalus (Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences) 135 (#3, Summer 2006): 5-11.
• "Technological Systems and Momentum Change: American Electric Utilities, Restructuring, and Distributed Generation Technologies" (with Benjamin K. Sovacool), Journal of Technology Studies, Journal of Technology Studies 32 (Spring 2006): 72-85.
• Presentation to Knight Center for Specialized Journalism, University of Maryland, on "The Origins of Electric Power Deregulation," given on 22 October 2001. 

• "Power Switch: Will the Restructured Electric Utility System Help the Environment?" text of article published in Environment (September 1999), a Heldref publication, with Adam H. Serchuk.

• "Teaching About Values and Engineering: The American Electric Utility Industry as a Case Study," a paper presented at the 1995 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Atlanta, GA.

Other major publications

• Technology and Transformation in the American Electric Utility Industry (Cambridge University Press, 1989).  Also available in paperback.

• Glimpsing an Invisible Universe: The Emergence of X-Ray Astronomy (Cambridge University Press, 1983).  Also available in paperback.
• List of select publications.

 

Richard F. Hirsh

Professor of History of Technology

Dept. of History (0117)

Program in Science & Technology in Society

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)

Blacksburg, VA 24061

Phone: 540-231-5601 Fax: 540-231-8724