Full Title: Materials for Low-Carbon Power— A White Paper
Author(s):
Publisher(s): Granta
Publication Date: July 1, 2012
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Description (excerpt):
The world-wide demand for energy is expected to treble by 2050. Most of this energy will be electrical. How will it be generated in ways that relieve these pressures? And how much time will the transition take? The options are listed in Table 1.
We have history as a guide for the time it takes to replace one source of power by another. Figure 1 shows the way in which power sources have changed in the last 150 years. Past transitions have taken about 40 years for 50% replacement. Speed, of course, depends on urgency and ability to manage change, and both, in the coming years, may be greater than in the past. But the message of the figure is clear: a major shift in a vital underpinning technology such as power generation takes decades.