Research Frontiers in Energy Science and Technology

The ability of national and global energy systems to deliver reliable energy-related products and services at an affordable cost, with reduced dependency on geostrategic and political factors, and in an environmentally benign way is critical to the well-being of modern societies. At the same time, we live in an era of technological revolution, which allows for exploration of scientific phenomena at lengths and time scales considered impossible in the past. Taking advantage of and further pursuing such knowledge will facilitate the quest for novel and more efficient energy-conversion methods, fuels, and materials. The enormous effort involved in creating a long-term, sustainable energy system poses considerable challenges for the natural, engineering, and social sciences. In order to contribute to this effort, the scientists must consider existing boundary conditions. However, they can only live up to these challenges by fully using their strengths, namely, exploring scientific frontiers, overcoming technological barriers, and creating and integrating knowledge, as well as transferring innovative insights to industry, economy, and society.

International experts from the academia and industry discuss their scenarios of future technologies and describe their fields’ frontiers. A broad and exciting picture of future energy technologies is revealed. The shown contributions have been presented during the Latsis Symposium 2006 "Research Frontier in Energy Science and Technology".

Main contributions from: Fatih Birol, Konstantinos Boulouchos, Klaus Fröhlich, Lino Guzzella, Eberhard Jochem, Johann Kolar, Wolfgang Kröger, Klaus Lackner, Arun Majumdar, Reinhard Nesper, Christian Ohler, Aldo Steinfeld, Didier Stevens, Thomas Stocker, Felix Wu, Stefan Zimmermann