Over 60% of the electricity produced worldwide comes from burning fossil fuels: coil, fuel-oil and gas. And this percentace is bound to increase, reaching 68% by 2010 according to estimates of the International Energy Agency (IEA). Even in Europe, where nuclear production is widely implemented, the share of conventional thermoelectric generation surpasses half the total. In Italy, in 1999 the thermoelectric component (209 TWh) represented almost 80% of the total gross production. Taking into account the facilities' capacity, still in 1999, in Italy, conventional thermal power plants had a total net power of 52,584 MW, representing 71% of the total, a percentage similar to the one recorded in the World.)