ABSTRACT
Developing nations, which can least afford it, are stuck with the most wasteful, expensive and environmentally destructive technologies for both the production and the use of energy. Unless transfer and investment policies change, energy shortages will worsen while the environment and human health suffer. Sustainability will become an ever more remote goal. Services that require energy use are central to improving quality of life, enabling economic and industrial growth and encouraging development. These services can be achieved using either much or little energy, depending on efficiency of use. Cogeneration, or combined heat and power systems, involves burning fuel to generate both electricity and useful heat, for use in food processing plants, for example. Rising gas reserves and the availability of very efficient gas turbines will make gas an important bridging fuel from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Solar power is sometimes dismissed as being a second-rate or not advanced technology.
