The U.S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson has announced that a revolutionary new type of fuel cell power plant has been built. Its success could help usher in a new option for the world's electric power industry - a source of power that would not require combustion. When installed, the system is expected to generate electric power at 55 percent efficiency - meaning that 55 percent of the energy value of the natural gas fuel will be converted into electricity. A conventional coal plant, by contrast, converts only 35 percent of its fuel into electricity, while today's natural gas turbines average just over 50 percent. Siemens Westinghouse expects that electrical efficiencies of more than 70 percent can be achieved as its hybrid technology improves.
Higher efficiencies mean fewer greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide.
The reduction would be nearly one-third when compared to today's natural gas turbine plants. This is a website of the Global Environmental Change Programme , the largest ever social science research initiative in the UK on any issue. Thirty years ago there was growing concern that economic growth would lead to the over-exploitation of natural resources. Scientists projecting current trends into the future warned that there could be a dramatic environmental breakdown because economic development would reach resource limits. Such predictions have been proven wrong, mainly because they underestimated the effects of technological change.