Reviews & Analysis

“Our energy strategy must be flexible, balancing between different fuels and different sources, steering between overcaution and recklessness” Mr Eric Varley, Secretary of State for Energy, gives his view of the situation.

Nature's Soviet Correspondent shows that the Soviet Union is not being complacent about possible energy problems, large though her resources may be.

Storing energy in the form of hydrogen is an attractive possibility to provide fuel for transport and the reduction of iron ore. The main obstacle is the expense of the electricity needed to synthesise hydrogen.

Compared with the United States, which imports only a few per cent of its total energy needs, and the Soviet Union, which is a net exporter of energy, Europe is heavily dependent on outside supplies.

If India is to avoid the worst effects of the increases in the price of oil she must make better use of her indigenous sources of energy.

The central problem facing Japan is how to reduce her growing reliance on imported oil.

“It is nonsensical to treat coal, gas, electricity, oil and nuclear energy as separate fuels without regard to the overall needs of Britain, and that is what has happened up to now. We should set up a National Fuel and Power Council to develop a coordinated and comprehensive policy for all the industries concerned”.

Dr G. R. Bainbridge is Manager of Technical Assessments in the Reactor Group of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. At the beginning of August he takes up his appointment to the new Chair of Energy Studies in the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Here, he discusses the nuclear fission reactor options which Britain could take up during the next decade and gives an outline of the broad energy requirements for which nuclear reactors are needed.

Solar energy is one form of income on which we can afford to live. Here is another proposal: the use of power from the waves at sea.

Heat from nuclear reactors can be used for several purposes other than the generation of electricity, for example as a source of heat for chemical processes or for producing ‘synthetic’ fuels.

Although there is plenty of shale oil in the United States, treatment at the surface of the rock that contains the oil would require prohibitive amounts of water. But the alternative, production in situ, is not yet a well developed technique.

Energy generation from the tides is widely regarded as economically less viable than that from conventional thermal alternatives. Although economic comparisons are unfavourable the potential overall improvements in network operation indicate the true value of new plant.

The National Industrial Fuel Efficiency Service Ltd, once a British Government body but now a successful private company, pays close attention to an energy problem that is often ignored.

Studies have been made of a very wide range of possible ways in which solar energy might be used for domestic and industrial purposes. Some are already economically viable and the prospects for others are improving through intensive programmes of research and development.

Dr F. Howitt, of BP, assesses the oil and gas reserves which Britain can expect to exploit from the waters around its coastlines. Although supplies are limited, there seems to be some room for optimism: even if no more oil is discovered there may still be a small supply at the beginning of the next century.