EPRI´s US Roadmap of the future

The focus of this paper is to imagine the world 25 years from now with large numbers of nonpolluting electric vehicles in the transportation system, closed-looped industrial processes that greatly reduce waste, microprocessors running everything from the smallest appliance to the largest factory, and renewable energy giving access and a higher standard of living to millions of people who would otherwise not have electricity. The basis of the vision is the EPRI Electricity Roadmap. The electricity industry has developed a US-based Electricity Technology Roadmap as an ongoing collaborative exploration of future electricity-base innovation. So far, the Roadmap has engaged leaders in over 150 organizations to shape the vision of these new opportunities. The Roadmap can be used to launch imaginations through the next 25 years and beyond to envision the opportunities for electricity to serve society in new ways. The goal of this review is to illustrate the results of this effort and invite others to deploy it as a start.