抄録
At the beginning of the (21)^<st> century, the author considers it a high time to make a deliberate study to prospect how power plants will change and going to be over the coming time period of 100 years or more. By imaging the future style of power plants, it will become clear what we should do right now. Thermal power plants will still play an important role even in the (21)^<st> century. However, as long as fossil fuels are used, they will be under strong influence of the quantity and availability of fossil fuels. When fossil fuels are all consumed, thermal power plants are no more possible. Therefore, we should develop technologies to give maximum power with minimum fossil fuel consumption, namely, technologies of highest energy conversion efficiencies. And as fossil fuels become less and less as time passes, determination of priority in usage will be necessary, and shift to sustainable energy must also be considered. In addition to these, environmental issues including global climate change is also an important issue for power systems engineers to consider. Proper scientific and engineering understanding is necessary. This paper will summarize these broad and important items for power plant engineers to consider and solve.
