Future World Energy Demand Versus New Energy Technologies

Future world energy demand will be predominately influenced by population growth in the various sectors of the world. The combination of the high population growth rate of developing nations with their high growth rate in energy demand per capita results in a complete reversal of energy use patterns by the year 2000, and a potential shortfall of 25 million barrels per day of oil equivalent. New technologies such as coal gasification, MHD, nuclear breeders and solar power can only, even under the most favorable conditions, supply one half of this potential shortfall.