This book summarizes the results of an international research project - the first Europe-wide Delphi study on future developments in the energy sector (EurEnDel). With a time horizon of 2030, this expert survey provides not only a useful perspective on long-term developments of energy technologies, but also evaluates these technologies against different sets of social values or "visions". Nearly 700 energy experts from 48 countries participated in this two-round web-based Delphi exercise. The results represent a broad European perspective on the challenges that Europe’s energy system will be facing over the next two and a half decades. In the survey and in the analysis of the results, equal emphasis was placed on the technology-push perspective "What will the future be like?" and the normative social-pull perspective "What should the future be like?". In this respect, considerable attention was given to the different responses received from technology experts, generalists and decision makers.

Timon Wehnert graduated as physicist from Berlin Technical University and gained six years of professional experience in research and consultancy on energy and environmental topics, especially on energy technology foresight and energy research policy. Presently he is working as a researcher at the Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment (IZT), Berlin, Germany where he was the coordinator of the EurEnDel study on which the present book is based and which was carried out in co-operation with four other European Research Institutions.