From: Tom Gray <tgray@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: sci.environment
Date: 23 Nov 92 05:42 PST
Subject: --Electricity and Sustainability
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1466601930:000:3929
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!tgray    Nov 23 05:42:00 1992


/* Written  5:30 am  Nov 23, 1992 by tgray@igc.apc.org in igc:en.energy */
ELECTRIC TECHNOLOGY KEY TO
GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY
 
Electric technology and research must play a key role as the
world's nations search for "global sustainability," according to
Robert Fri, President of Resources for the Future and Chairman of
the Advisory Council of the Electric Power Research Institute
(EPRI).
 
In a speech delivered before the "Electricity Beyond 2000" forum
sponsored by EPRI and the International Electric Research Exchange
and summarized in the June issue of EPRI Journal, Fri said the
challenge facing the world's economic system is daunting:  "[I]f
the per capita income of the majority of the world's people were to
rise to only one-third of that which the developed countries might
enjoy a century from now, then the world economy would have to
expand in real terms by 30-fold over the next 100 years.
 
"And although most of us -- and surely the poor -- would view this
as a desirable result, such growth would place enormous demands on
our stock of natural and environmental resources."
 
The World Commission on Environment and Development, an
international body charged with examining this problem, created the
concept of "sustainable development," Fri said, which in essence
means finding ways to promote economic growth without depleting the
environmental resources that must sustain humanity into the future.
 
The electric power industry is closely linked to sustainable
development in three ways, Fri said:
 
o    Economic development typically leads to rapid growth in
     electricity demand:  "Total energy use grew in South Korea [a
     country experiencing strong economic growth] between 1970 and
     1990 by a factor of four, but the use of electricity grew by
     a factor of nine during this period."
 
o    Electricity generation currently has a major impact on a
     variety of environmental problems, from global warming to air
     pollution:  "A major influence on achieving the goal of
     sustainable development will lie in the way developing
     countries choose to meet their need for electricity."
 
o    Accelerated advances in electric generation technology will be
     crucial to meeting the world's energy needs in a sustainable
     way.
 
Fri said incorporation of environmental costs into private energy
markets is the best way to create "indigenous demand for
environmentally sound technologies," but also urged the utility
industry to push forward with balancing environmental and economic
goals in the near term while environmental cost calculations are
being made.
 
[ed. note:  For more on how electric technology can improve energy
productivity, see "New Electric Technology Leads to New Efficiency
Advances," Wind Energy Weekly #509, August 3, 1992, p. 2.  For a
further analysis of world energy needs in the long-term future, see
"Energy Supply Key Problem for Sustainable Future, Expert Says,"
Wind Energy Weekly #499, May 18, 1992, p. 3.]
 
===============================

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*******************************************************************
Tom Gray                                 EcoNet/PeaceNet: tgray@igc
Internet/Bitnet: tgray@igc.apc.org            UUCP: uunet!cdp!tgray

Newsgroups: sci.environment