NEW ENERGY TECHNOLOGY: SOME FACTS AND ASSESSMENTS

This report concentrates on the technological status of energy and fuel conservation processes in the U.S. It assesses the technical and economic adequacy of existing and proposed processes (and their consistency with developing standards of environmental quality) and suggests where additional effort is needed to accelerate change. Unlike most studies, which restrict themselves to an examination of a single energy source or industry, this report examines in turn most of the various methods of energy production now in use or likely to come into general use. This wholeness of view allows the authors to make meaningful comparisons between alternative proposals and to devise integrated growth strategies. As a full technical report, the book includes the available numerical evidence needed to corroborate its final assessments. Chapters are included on fossil-fuel-to-fuel conversion (gas from coal, oil from coal, tar sands, and oil shale), nuclear power (present technology, breeder-reactor technology, and thermonuclear fusion), and central-station power from fossil fuel (with material on combined gas--steam power cycles, magnetohydrodynamics, superconducting generators, and fuel cells). In addition, the book provides background information and evaluations regarding other relevant topics, among them energy transportation and storage, thermal and sulfur dioxide pollution control, the prospects for utilizing solar energy, automotive power plants, and space heating and cooling.