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What is needed in the meantime is the start of volume, mass-market trials of smart metering. The Government does hold some of the information needed, both from its own EDRP tests and from various private-sector projects, but not on the scale to provide reliable foundations for a nationwide launch.

There have been several pilots and there is a ten year roll-out plan. What more stimulus does a smart meter manufacturer need?

List of web links in David MacKay's book, "Sustainable Energy without the Hot Air" provided by the author Each item is preceded by the page number on which the link is mentioned.

NV Energy deal, legislation in Congress could help state develop solar power SolarReserve, a California energy company, is planning to build a 100-megawatt solar thermal power plant near Tonopah, and on Tuesday it announced that NV Energy had agreed to buy power from the plant. As Stephanie Tavares reported on the Las Vegas Sun's Web site, the plant is designed to use heat storage technology that will allow its steam turbines to run at night. The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project is being vetted by the Bureau of Land Management. The company says it could break ground by 2011 and expects construction to last two years.

"The renewable energy map has been developed to fill what seems to be a gap in information about the major renewable energy schemes in the UK. Though there are a number of lists and project details available, these are often developed to indicate a point in time or a specific technology. The BWEA is an example of the latter, an excellent resource but specifically focused on wind. The data that has been gathered for the renewables map has invariably come from a wide range of web resources, in all cases these will be referenced, usually by a link to that information. Locations are either taken from existing data, usually from planning applications, or by painstakingly identifying the location on the ground using online maps. There are of course errors (such as landfill's at sea), though these are corrected as soon as they are identified."

This merits revisiting. With the recent collapse of the Spanish market, the correction of the German market and the expected collapse of the French PV market, FITs prove unsustainable or victim of their own success. Once the market picks up, governments can no longer support their price tab. Moreover, they are based on a false premise: the cost of taking a technology through the learning cycle is prohibitive - it requires too many tens of billions.

The topic is complex. Some underlying questions: * Why promotion of renewables was set-up? * What is the complete economic balance of renewables promotion? (expenses in subsidies, but savings in fuel imports, job creation, exports.... some interesting studies have been done on this - see for instance Macroeconomic study on the impact of Wind Energy in Spain - http://www.aeeolica.es/userfiles/file/aee-publica/091211-executive-summary-2009.pdf) * Is the allocation of subsidies cost done correctly? Electricity consumers often pay extra-cost, but benefits go to other pockets. Should there be a cost re-allocation to make the model sustainable? * Is regulatory framework evolving less rapidly than technology? FITs on PV in 2008 could be significantly reduced compared to FITs in 2007, and so on. How to accomodate regulation to that quick cost reduction? * Had governments defined a cap in global subsidies amount? Not really, this explains why they are all reacting to initial plans. * Development of technology and market drives costs down. Why some few countries should make this investment to the benefit of the entire world? * Have we excessively promoted market growth and neglected technology development? Are we paying too much for building power plants with primitive technology?

@Fernando - I agree that the topic is complex. However, I'd refrain from making claims on employment effects. This is an area where secondary effects are rarely taken into account. While I realise these claims are popular, basically nobody knows.

Recently, the District of Columbia became one of the first government organizations in history to publicly promote its system-wide efficiency. The District started to invest in measures to better understand its use of energy throughout its almost 200 public buildings. By energy benchmarking, it hopes to cut back on its use of electricity, natural gas, and other fuels and consequently reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Excellent over view of shale gas and compressed natural gas dynamics including conversion kits for automobiles and truck fleets. THE ONLY LOGICAL ANSWER to bridge the conversion from oil based fuels to paradigm alternatives lies in the conversion of personal transportation to the use of natural gas. Consider the following reasons: (long list) ONE WEEK AFTER Obama's energy policy speech, March 31, 2011, at Georgetown University, a bi-partisan group of more than 150 Members of Congress introduced HR.1835, with Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK) as the primary sponsor. The NAT GAS Act (New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions) Act, is the culmination of efforts of T. Boone Pickens to promote his "Pickens Plan" for changing the focus of American energy consumption. The NAT GAS Act provides incentives for using natural gas in vehicles, purchasing natural gas vehicles, installing natural gas refueling stations, and producing natural gas vehicles in America. The problem is that Obama and his energy secretary do not actually support HR 1835!  The speech was just a ruse.  Watch what he does, not what he says.  CNG-Compressed Natural Gas

"it was all summed up clearly for me by members of COPAGEN, a coalition of African farmer associations, scientists, civil society groups and activists who work to protect Africa's genetic heritage, farmer rights, and their sovereignty over their land, seeds and food. All these knowledgeable people have shown me that the answer is quite straightforward: many of those imported mistakes, disguised as solutions for Africa, are very, very profitable. At least for those who design and make them."

Spain is one of the world's hottest markets for solar panels and Sebastian said he expected capacity by the end of this year to be five times a target of 371 MW that the government had originally set for 2010 in a renewable energy plan.