Emerging energy technologies

Article By:

Letcher, Trevor M. School of Chemistry, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.

Last reviewed:2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.YB150610

Electricity generation is the lifeblood of the modern world. It has been predicted that over the next 50 years the world will have to find 50% more energy to satisfy growing needs from emerging nations and the power-demanding developed world. This, together with the looming crisis of climate change and the fact that oil will soon reach peak production, has sparked a new generation of emerging energy technologies, many of them geared around renewable forms of energy. There is now no doubt among climate scientists that anthropogenic carbon dioxide and particulates, generated largely from the burning of coal and other fossil fuels, are responsible for our present changing climate. As a result, new ways must be found to generate electricity and to power our transportation system. Climate change is without doubt the most severe problem that our civilization has ever had to face, and with it comes the devastating scourges of drought, flooding, famine, lack of clean water, disease, overpopulation, and human migration, all on an unprecedented scale.

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