Energy in the 1980s - Energy conversion to electricity
Growing awareness of future problems of supplies of hydrocarbon fuels enhances the importance of nuclear power in meeting continuing growth in the demand for energy, and of electricity as the route for the deployment of nuclear power. Acceleration of the growth of the electricity share of the total energy market and of the substitution of electricity for other fuels will entail the reversal of some of the trends of the past decade in the United Kingdom. The scope for innovation in the technology of conversion of fossil fuels to electricity will be limited in the United Kingdom by future contraction in investment in fuel-fired generating plant. Uncertainty about primary fuel supplies and prices in the medium term calls for flexibility in fuel use during the transition to a mainly nuclear system. A continuing task is the harmonization of the expansion of electricity production with the preservation of the environment.