Due to population, technology, and other factors, the emerging global generation is the most power - hungry that has ever lived. This program reveals how energy is harnessed today from wind, the sun, and the heart of the atom, and how these sources might be further utilized in years to come. Viewers learn how, in past centuries, the drive for new sources of power was linked to profit, with ideas and inventions creating fortunes and shaping the course of history. The film also shows how an awareness of the basic nature of energy has historically lagged behind our knowledge of what it can do.

A BBC Production.