Light for the Future

Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a nonprofit organization for energy and environmental research, has predicted that worldwide power demand will see a fourfold increase by 2050. Meeting the demand will require an effort equivalent to opening a 1-gigawatt power plant every two days for the next 50 years. The study projects the future of known technologies, including many in development. It takes into account variables, including the estimated learning curve for adoption and how far an idea is from commercialization. APERC and other energy research groups recommend the use of renewables instead. Systems bankrolled by grants, often from governments, can run on local resources. Engineering is working toward an unprecedented era in which the very poor—the quarter, or perhaps third, of the world without the juice to run a pump—within a generation or so may be able to offer their children a bedtime drink of clear water and light to drink it by.