Society thrives on the secure and reliable flow of affordable energy to industries, homes, public service facilities, communication systems, and transportation systems. Because energy is the lifeblood of the economies of nations and a primary factor in the technology deployment plans of industrial entities and public agencies at all jurisdictional levels, it is essential to the operation of society. Accidental or intentional disruption of energy systems generation, flow, and use can cause high-cost damages. Analyses by the International Energy Agency IEA in 2001 http://www.iea.org/technol indicate that world energy use will rise by 57% by 2020 at an average annual rate of 2%, using 1997 as the reference year. Globally, fossil fuels oil, gas, and coal are expected to account for 90% of the primary energy mix by 2020. Oil is expected to provide 40% of the primary energy mix to support mostly transportation in the technologically advanced countries and power generation in developing countries. Furthermore, regional shares in global energy demand will shift from the advanced countries to the developing world. Although coal use will rise in absolute terms, its share in the energy mix will decrease in favor of renewables and gas. By 2020, emission rates of CO2 from fossil fuels are expected to increase by 60%, relative to 1997, at an annual rate of 2.1%. That scenario is underlain by the assumptions that the global economy will grow at a rate of more than 3% per year; the rate of growth of the global population will decrease; and fossil fuel prices will remain relatively constant, at approximately US$21 per barrel in 2001 dollars until 2010. Large uncertainties characterize energy demand and supply projections. The energy mix may change drastically in response to global and regional politics, energy policy reforms of nations, technological advances in energy efficiency of appliances and automobiles, fuel substitution, and development of environmentally friendly energy technologies. Particularly, technological advances can serve as an enabler for the improvement, acceptance, and implementation of options that would otherwise have gained smaller segments of the energy mix. Although global energy demand and supply factors are worthy of coordinated treatment in an increasingly interdependent world, direct implementation of sustainable energy systems is more feasible on a regionalized basis, where the following three factors recognized by the World Energy Council http://www.worldenergy.org/wec-geis/news as indices of energy sustainability can be assessed: