Global Energy Demand in Transition: The New Role of Electricity (350)

The annual conferences on energy, which were begun in 1977, continued to 1992 and resumed again in 1994. The theme of the 1994 conference was "Global Energy Demand in Transition: The New Role ofElectricity. " Global energy production, distribution, and utilization is in astate of transition toward an increased and more diversified use of electricity, which is the safest, most versatile, and cleanest form of secondary energy. Electricity is easy to generate, transmit, and distribute, making its use practically universal. These facts make it urgent to explore the technological prospects and long term availability of environmentally benign energy sources for generating electricity. It is expected that the conference will be useful to the governments in formulating their energy policies and to the public utilities for their long term planning. The conference has: 1) assessed the increase and diversification in the use of electricity; 2) assessed the technological prospects for clean energy sources that still require more research and development, i. e. solar, hydrogen, nuclear (fission and fusion), etc. ; 3) assessed the roles of non-market factors and possible improved decision processes on energy and environmental issues; 4) made concrete recommendations regarding research and development policies and regulations to expedite the transition to a dependable, safer, and benign electricity-based energy complex; 5) studied the cost impact: price, environment, safety, and international security; 6) provided an analysis of an expected transition from the fossil fuel transportation to electrical transportation (e. g.