Trends of world energy consumption and possibilities of environment protective power generation

The population of the world will duplicate within the next three to four decades. The primary energy consumption will increase accordingly. Considering the limited reach of our fossil energy resources and their negative impact on the global climate, alternative strategies for the power generation have to be developed. The contribution of the renewable energy sources will be important, but not sufficient, due to their high generation costs. The nuclear power, which already today participates essentially in the energy supply, will remain one of the most important options for environment protecting energy generation. Especially for the developing countries, which -in general- have currently a not covered energy demand, the build up of reasonable energy generation structures means enormous volumes of investments, which can only be financed with the assistance of the industrialized countries. Those, on the other hand, have to economize their energy consumption and have to undertake any effort in continuing with the development of clean, safe and competitive renewable resources. To provide increasing world population with sufficient energy and at the same time to reduce CO2 emissions is one of the biggest challenges that mankind has ever faced. (Author)