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A philosophical diatribe to start your week.

This is a guest article by Dr. David Fleming. Fleming is the Founder Director of the Lean Economy Connection, and an independent writer in the fields of energy, environment, economics, society and culture. The article is based on Fleming's recent 56-page booklet, The Lean Guide to Nuclear Energy, which expands and references the arguments presented. The booklet is available to download here: The Lean Guide to Nuclear Energy

Another example of pass-through pricing. At least it happens where I take my fuel.

BOULDER, Colo. -- May 4 2009 - The wind energy industry has been battered by the global economic crisis, with market participants being dealt a severe blow by the credit crunch that began in 2008. However, the future prospects for wind energy remain bright, according to a new report from Pike Research. The cleantech market intelligence firm forecasts that total installed wind generation capacity will reach 320 gigawatts (GW) in 2015, representing a 165% increase over 2008 levels.

Building off sharp growth in 2007‐2008, US wind power development in 2009 has been impacted dramatically by the current economic climate-and US wind players must readjust their strategies in the wake of this new competitive environment. The US wind power industry finished 2008 at a record pace with 8,546 MW of new wind plant added, led by Texas, Iowa, New York, Kansas, and Wyoming. EER forecasts a sharp decline in 2009, but a rebound in 2010 and growth of 12 GW per year on average from 2010‐2020 to supply nearly 14% of total US power demand.

Despite the current economic crisis, there is good news for the U.S. wind power sector: R&D is paving the way for increased efficiency in wind power.

"Business calls for urgent action on "oil crunch" threat to UK economy Taskforce warns Britain is unprepared for significant risk to companies and consumers Poorest to be hit hardest by price rises for travel, food, heating and consumer goods New policies must be priority for whoever wins the General Election Recommended packages include legislation, new technologies and behaviour-change incentives Fundamental change in demand patterns triggered by emerging economy countries London, 10 February, 2010: A group of leading business people today call for urgent action to prepare the UK for Peak Oil. The second report of the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security (ITPOES) finds that oil shortages, insecurity of supply and price volatility will destabilise economic, political and social activity potentially by 2015. Peak Oil refers to the point where the highest practicable rate of global oil production has been achieved and from which future levels of production will either plateau, or begin to diminish. This means an end to the era of cheap oil."

First Minister Alex Salmond believes Scotland has hit the energy jackpot for the second time. First came North Sea oil. Now, it's Scotland's abundance of wind and water which could prove to be our economic saviour. The big question is: How can Scotland cash in on its good fortune? Wind farms have become a common feature of the Scottish landscape. Indeed, many would argue they are all too common. The power companies themselves admit they are finding it harder and harder to identify suitable sites for new onshore wind farms.

First Minister Alex Salmond believes Scotland has hit the energy jackpot for the second time. First came North Sea oil. Now, it's Scotland's abundance of wind and water which could prove to be our economic saviour. The big question is: How can Scotland cash in on its good fortune? Wind farms have become a common feature of the Scottish landscape. Indeed, many would argue they are all too common. The power companies themselves admit they are finding it harder and harder to identify suitable sites for new onshore wind farms.

**Extremely useful comparison + charts** Covers 11 technologies from 6 data sources. Source detail included in appendix. Costs: capital, fixed, operating, learning factor; Technical: size, heat rate, [potential] capacity factor, service life. Note on unit life: not all data sets include this, some run as long as plant is economic (no pre-determined retirement age), can represent max service life or is just used to compute economics (e.g. LCOE).

Raw materials and utilities cost Biodiesel is the product obtained when a vegetable oil or an animal fat reacts chemically with an alcohol to produce fatty acid alkyl esters. A catalyst such as sodium or potassium hydroxide is required. Glycerol is produced as a co-product (Van Gerpen et al., 2004). The most common stoichiometries description of the reaction is: 1000 kg of oil þ 110 kg of methanol/1000 kg of biodiesel þ 110 kg of glycerol

By Jorge Moreno, Environmental and Building Technologies, Frost & Sullivan With more end users focusing on reducing energy costs, energy-saving water-to-water heat pump (WTWHP) chillers are being deployed to reduce a facility's utility bills. A WTWHP chiller is a water-cooled chiller that is designed to produce hot water at a specified temperature. The use of a WTWHP chiller is very similar to a conventional centrifugal chiller except for the fact that it uses two compressors, slightly different piping configurations, and more advanced controls in order to balance cooling and heating loads. In a conventional chiller, cold water is produced for comfort cooling, and the hot water that is extracted from the refrigeration process goes into a cooling tower and is released into the atmosphere. In a WTWHP chiller, this hot water is captured and relocated to a second heating stage, where the temperature is raised and the water is used as a heating source for a building's heating requirements. The key strength of WTWHP chillers is the high coefficient of performance (COP) that translates into significant energy savings and a shorter payback period. On the other hand, the key weakness is that it can only provide such benefits in a narrow range of applications primarily due to its coincident need for cooling and heating requirements throughout the year to ensure efficiency. A coincident need means that the application demands sizable water heating load along with the typical high cooling requirements in summer, and a sizable chilled water load along with the typical heating requirements during winter. Cooling output is directly dependent on the demand for heating, and vice versa. Consequently, in the absence of sufficient heating requirements, there is only a limited amount of cooling that can be produced. Any excess heating or cooling cannot be stored and hence, it is critical to align the cooling with the expected heating requirements. Coincidentally, in the absence of suf