VIRTUAL PLANTS: A NEW TACKLE FOR AN OLD CHALLENGE

Abstract

In terms of social and environmental quality, use and energy generation can be associated with three great problems: the increasing demand, due to population growth and society modernization; the time, costs and impacts related to new power plants, and lastly, the availability and exhaustion of energetic resources. Therefore, the knowledge on these resources, conservation technologies, efficient systems for the utilization of energy and local-regional energetic demands are of paramount importance. To Gather, consolidate and spread the current knowledge surrounding this problem, as well as to present and debate solutions for it, are the prior purposes of this article. The bibliography research covered projects, recent reports and literature. The relevance of this paper, which contributes for the development and growth of this specific scientific area, is related to the fact of spreading a new concept, Virtual Plants. This new concept brings priceless benefits to the environment, society and economy of a country, such as a cleaner, low cost way of energy generation, which do not compromise the energetic supply and, especially, do not harm the environment, making evident of the compromise with the sustainable development and increasing of life quality.