The research and development of new and improved energy technologies is a lengthy process. This ties up capital for long terms. To reduce the resulting uncertainties the scientific institute of the Federal Ministry for Trade and Technology has engaged energy suppliers and industrial companies to identify the relevant research and development focal points in the field of energy technologies up to the year 2050. The ambitious goals of development of the fluctuating renewable energies into the power grid lead to a growing imbalance between energy generation and its use. Thus, technologies directed at equilibrating the regeneration and use of energy and to intermediate storage of regenerative electricity are to gain significance in the future. The study goal is to provide new accents on publicly funded R&D projects and make recommendations as to energy research programs with respect to non-nuclear energy research in the coming years. Study topics include fossil and regenerative fuel power plant technologies, energy storage and power grid technologies, energy efficiency in industry and trade, services, buildings, hydrogen and stationary fuel cell technologies, and methanol technology. Conventional fossil fired power plants account for about 60% of the net domestic power generation and account for about 40% of total carbon dioxide emissions. The German power plant manufacturer accounts for 20% of the world market. The separation of carbon dioxide from the flue gas is the greatest challenge in this field. Coal power plants now being built are 46% efficient (hard coal) and 43% efficient (soft coal). By increasing the temperature of the fresh steam to 700°C and 365 bar with other measures the efficiency is to be increased to 50% at first in hard coal power plants and later in soft coal power plants. Because of the consideration of the cost/use ratios, a further increase in efficiency is possible envisioning the 800°C power plant where suitable and cost effective materials are key. Compared with coal power plants, gas and steam power plants now are almost 59% efficient. The new Irsching-4 power plant block will achieve 60% efficiency. Further efficiency improvements for this type of power plant are expected using a higher turbine entrance temperature and new cooling designs. Photograph and graphs.