In pursuit of feasible near-future sustainable and environmentally acceptable - ergy solutions to speci?c needs and based on the available – often speci?c and l- ited – resources as pertinent to many smaller transitional countries, the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina in cooperation with Dubrovnik Inter-University Centre invited a panel of experts to present and discuss the sta- of-the-art in the development of new energy technologies at a conference held in Dubrovnik,Croatia, on23–25September2006. Up-to-datereviewsof the status and prospects of different options in energy conversion and storage technologies were presented by some of the world leading authorities – members of the national and international academies of sciences, directors of institutes, directors of national and international (EU) energy programmes and academics from Belgium, France, G- many, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland. The articles covered new clean and zero-emission coal technologies, solar, wind, nuclear, fuel cells, - drogen and hybrid technologies, accompanied by treatises on the challenge of - creasing global energy needs and consumption, issues of sustainability, and on - ?cient production and use of energy based on modern rationing technologies. This overview was complemented by several regional surveys of needs, resources and priorities, as well as speci?c initiatives towards meeting future energy objectives, pursued in several countries in South-Eastern Europe. This volume has grown out of (but is not con?ned to) extended and revised invited articles presented at the Dubrovnik conference under the auspices of the AcademyofSciencesandArtsofBosniaandHerzegovina.
