A brief review of the status of world energy supplies is given. Attention is drawn to the effect of exponential increase in energy usage rate on reserves, and the necessity for conservation is indicated. In the field of surface coatings and printing inks, quantitative data are presented to show that the technique of ultraviolet light curing can result in significant energy savings. Although the technique is becoming widely accepted in various areas of application, the curing of thick pigmented films still gives some problems. Some ideas are given concerning the solution of these problems, involving the use of a new photoinitiator/photoactivator combination, viz. 2-chlorothioxanthone plus ethyl 4-dimethylaminobenzoate. -- AATA