The new team: electricity sources without carbon dioxide

Considers the range of options available for reducing CO₂ emissions during power generation. Firstly, the efficiency of fossil-fuel burning generators could be increased, for example, by replacing traditional steam boilers with: the gas turbine combined cycle, which replaces coal or oil with gas; or the integrated gasification combined cycle, which heats coal in pure oxygen. Secondly, there could be more research and development into carbon-free alternatives: safer plants for nuclear fission are presently being developed, the modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor relies on helium instead of water to direct heat away from the core, and produces radioactive waste with a shorter half-life than most present day reactors. The author suggests that an international cooperation programme could be set up to work on producing a globally acceptable reactor. Thirdly, the renewables form a major, and as yet largely under-developed, source of energy - hydropower, solar energy, wind turbines and geothermal technologies are all used to some degree already. -M.Z.Barber