Electricity's Future: The Shift to Efficiency and Small-Scale Power. Worldwatch Paper 61.

Electricity, which has largely supplanted oil as the most controversial energy issue of the 1980s, is at the center of some of the world's bitterest economic and environmental controversies. Soaring costs, high interest rates, and environmental damage caused by large power plants have wreaked havoc on the once booming electricity industry. Although policymakers around the world disagree vigorously about future trends and appropriate policies, virtually all acknowledge that a turning point has been reached. This document discusses: (1) past practices and trends leading to problems related to electric power generation and the electrical industry in the United States and foreign countries (including developing nations); (2) innovations and advances in the electrical industry related to the growth of electricity; (3) the rush to small-scale energy production and cogeneration (the combined production of heat and power), led not by utilities but by large industrial companies building their own power systems and small firms created to tap new energy sources such as wind power and geothermal energy; (4) the role of energy efficient products and practices as a power source; and (5) electricity's future. (JN)