Results from a year-long study on high-tech electricity meters found smart grid technology performed as intended, saving consumers about 10 percent on their bills while easing strain on the power grid.

On January 25th the sector experienced a huge shock when the state-owned electric utility Eskom informed the big mining companies that it could only provide for 50% of the mines’ usual needs for the months to come. The consequence? Mines had to be shut down. You don’t want your miners stuck hundreds of meters deep below the surface and see the light suddenly go off.

Higher energy prices are feeding through to rampant consumer energy price inflation. And yet the authorities and many investment houses still see energy prices falling in the future. This naive view of global energy supplies is starving energy markets of the capital required to expand conventional and alternative energy supplies.

It has been suggested that this “rebound effect” only accounts for 5-20% of efficiency gains, but I have written previously about the potential for a “shadow” rebound effect that potentially accounts for nearly the entire efficiency gain.

Many countries have an intense debate about their opportunities to meet the new obligations in the EU Climate and Energy Package, especially the part that deals with the required quota of renewable fuels. Sweden and Latvia has lobbied heavily claiming that they already have done so much and already have a high share. Poland has dug their heels into the ground, wishing to expand, rather than reduce, the use of coal. Some of the reactions are clearly rhetorical to show the own voters that “we are defending your interests”. But where are the real winners and losers?

The world’s largest wind turbine is now the Enercon E-126. This turbine has a rotor blade width of 126 meters (413 feet). The E-126 is a more sophisticated version of the E-112, formerly the world’s largest wind turbine and rated at 6 megawatts.

The nighttime experiment is meant to Illuminate the top spire of the mammoth steel structure to demmonstrate the use of the first wireless electricity transfer system in the World. The test is designed to transfer about 1200 watts of power at a range of 100 feet and will be a first of its kind use of a system Japanese scientists are developing to transmit power at distances they hope could reach 300 feet using a science that is based on magnetically coupled resonance.

According to the NREL report referenced above, converting biomass into cellulosic ethanol can be done at about a 45% efficiency (i.e. 45% of the energy of the biomass makes it into the fuel.) In contrast, biomass can be converted at 33-37% efficiency [pdf] when cofired. Combining this with the 5x improvement of drivetrain efficiency that comes with electric propulsion, and the same amount of biomass converted to what I'll call "cellulosic electricity" will take a vehicle 3.8x as far as it would in the form of cellulosic ethanol.

Such a capacitor gauge could become a common sight on the dashboards of the future. A capacitor can discharge and recharge far faster than a battery, making it ideal both for generating bursts of speed and for soaking up the energy collected by regenerative braking. AFS Trinity, a company based in Washington state, has turned that insight into a piece of equipment that it has fitted into an otherwise standard production model as an experiment. The result—the XH-150—was unveiled at this year's Detroit motor show.

Germany is looking to integrate wind, solar, and biofuel natural gas to supply 100% of its power generation needs by 2050 (40% by 2020). Germany plans to phase out both Nuclear and Coal-fired power generation.