Industry restructuring is increasing the importance of generation and end-use conversion efficiencies. In the future, the drive to higher efficiencies will grow as energy suppliers strive to meet the needs of a competitive market and deal with environmental concerns. Higher efficiencies – made possible by innovations for new materials, sensors, controls, and configurations – will improve the economics of all forms of energy conversion by increasing output per unit of capital expenditure, reducing fuel costs, or both. A robust portfolio of advanced power generation options – fossil, nuclear, renewable and distributed – will be needed to meet future energy requirements. Coal is a vast resource in the U.S. and innovations in its use will improve both its efficiency and its environmental performance. With advances in satellite-based exploration plus drilling technology, natural gas has become an abundant commodity and the current fuel of choice where available. Whether large-and-central or small-and-distributed, advanced gas turbines now compete with central coal generation plants. Smaller, simpler, higher efficiency nuclear plant designs will revive the nuclear option, including gas turbine based designs for electricity generation and process heat based designs for hydrogen production. Reduced costs, advanced energy storage and improved performance will increase the value of renewable energy, leading to broad deployment of photovoltaic and wind systems, both on and off the power grid.