ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the significance for our urbanized society of the set of problems confronting the energy sector, and evaluates the urban innovations that might address effectively and in an integrated manner the problems facing both our cities and the energy sector. Social disbeneflts of patterns of energy use are growing and are likely to increase as the scale of energy consumption increases. In the energy arena, certain policy directions appear capable of addressing both environmental and social imperatives: the adoption of more efficient patterns of energy use and the development of solar-based renewable energy resources as the main energy source. Renewable energy advocates argue that solar energy is the only energy resource that is available, in one form or another, to all regions and countries of the world - developing and developed. For many developing countries, technology to harness renewable energy sources offers many attractive features in the reinvigoration of rural areas.
