ENERGY SOURCES AND TECHNOLOGY FOR GLOBAL ELECTRICITY GENERATION

Abstract

Fossil fuels - coal and gas - dominate the power-generating industry. Events such as global climate change and the introduction of new technologies can alter the fuel mix used by power plants. How the future of electricity generation will develop is of special interest to the suppliers of cooling systems for fossil-fuelled power plants. For the purpose of scenario planning for cooling-system suppliers, a review was carried out of the literature available on the role played by technological developments in the selection of energy sources for power plants. The information was analysed through the application of a scenario-planning technique. Recommendations were made within the contexts of the scenarios developed. The main findings were that the current strategy used is not adequately robust across four possible scenarios and that the supplier in question should enter the renewable- or nuclear-energy market in order to improve the long-term viability of its current strategy