Space Solar Power Review Vol 13 Num 3&4

without having to achieve energy parity with the industrialized nations. Both of these assumptions are incorrect. Changing the energy efficiency assumption for industrialized countries by half increases the demand shown in Figure 2, by 2.5 TeraWatts to 7.5 TW. The increase is the equivalent of 2,500 GigaWatt (1,000 MWe) nuclear power plants. Constant energy consumption in the industrialized nations with modest population growth results in a 10.2 TeraWatts demand for energy, most likely electricity China alone is planning to build over 300 six hundred megawatt coal fired plants over the next 30 years in order to meet its expected demand. One conclusion is that there is a huge energy market available if mechanisms for financing the development and paying for the energy can be created. Figure 2 - Current and Projected Energy Use (Erb 1993) Reserves vs. Resources The world has vast energy resources but all resources where not created equal nor were they distributed equitably. Some are so deep in the ocean or so far underground that they are not yet and may never be economical to recover. Others like shale oil would require vast strip mining operations and huge amounts of water making them environmentally unacceptable except as resources of the last resort. On the other hand it is thought by some that most if not all of the elephants, major oil fields like Saudi Arabia, have been found. Figures 3 and 4 shows the effect of

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