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เนื้อหาย่อ : Our business at EPRI is research-several hundreds of millions of dollars worth annually, all of it dealing with electricity. By its nature, the work we sponsor is sophis- ticated and specialized. It is sliced into thin technical bands so that experts can conve- niently apply their research talents to it. As portions of research programs are completed, results are circulated within the technical world through equally specialized com- munications channels. Information provided in research reports typically produced by EPRI is of little use to the layman simply because of the technical language with which the researchers com- municate. To further complicate the problem in translating this information for use by the general public, the technical information exists in pieces when the whole is what counts. And although this applies to all areas of scientific and technical inquiry, today it is particularly true for energy technology. Of all the national and global issues that de- mand thoughtful public attention, none outranks energy. With the publication of this book, the Electric Power Research Institute, on behalf of the electric utility industry, takes an im- portant step toward public education in matters of electric energy technology. This book supplements other communications activities of the Institute that include a monthly magazine, media relations, films, audiovisual material, and a variety of special publications. Both the need and the justification for the project grew out of the realization that EPRI, with the largest energy R&D program in the country next to the U.S. Department of Energy, has acquired massive amounts of information that have public value. To cloister all of this information within volumes of technical reports is to waste a resource of great potential public benefit. Electricity is the fastest growing energy form in the United States. Today, about one-third of our energy is converted to elec- tricity before it is used. Looking ahead to the turn of the century, as much as half of our total energy will be produced in the power plants of the nation's electric utilities. That will not necessarily come about by choice. The need will, in large part, be forced on us by diminishing fossil fuel resources and world politics. Whether this momentum toward electricity will be sus- tained at a rational and adequate pace is an issue that demands full and immediate atten- tion. And the technology of producing and delivering electricity cannot be separated from a discussion of how we get from today's forecasts to tomorrow's realities. For as we try to make clear in the follow- ing pages, the old ways of producing elec- tricity either will not be good enough in the future or will not be available to us. En- vironmental goals, depleted domestic resources, and national security considera- tions are combining to create radically new technological ground rules for electric power producers. As much as anything, then, this book pro- vides a backdrop for public understanding of the issues as a prelude to development of new policies and initiatives. It tracks the relatively new role of electricity in our energy history, discusses old and new ways to produce it and related environmental issues, and closes with an agenda of technology-related issues that await deci- sions. Our purpose is served if Electricity: Today's Technologies, Tomorrow's Alter- natives stimulates a measure of technical awareness and curiosity so that these deci- sions reflect the aspirations of an enlightened public.