Scientific American has this piece on offsets programs/initiatives, their benefits and their challenges. BTW, a Toronto company call Zerofootprint has launched its own offsets program targeting the publishing industry.

Nice article at CNET’s News.com about GridPoint and its intelligent energy management systems, which include an energy storage component that enables residential and business load-shifting. The company has struck an agreement with an unnamed utility that will get access to the storage systems within the homes of GridPoint customers to offset peak electricity demand.

Rob Day of Cleantech Investing raises an interesting point in this post about the recent restrictions imposed on air travellers after the London terror plot exposed last week. If liquids and gels are now banned on flights, what does this mean for direct-methanol fuel cell cartridges and their chances of replacing batteries for laptops and other electronic gizmos? Could terrorism rules limit the attractiveness of these longer-lasting fuel cells?

The Anchorage Daily News takes a look at VRB Power’s flow battery being tested at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Energy Center. The crew there is putting the battery through several years of aggressive testing to see whether it’s an ideal fit for solar and wind systems in remote communities.

ABS Energy Research in London, U.K., has a new report out that concludes that “the benefits claimed for wind power are not always what they seem.” I won’t go into details, but check out the company’s press release — via RenewableEnergyAccess.com — and let me know what you think.

Finally, the results of my latest poll that asks whether policies that promote corn-based ethanol are a good idea. Of the 92 who voted, 46 per cent said it’s a bad idea, while 38 per cent said it’s a decent strategy as long as corn is viewed as a transition over the longer term to cellulosic ethanol production that uses wood and agricultural waste and dedicated crops such as switchgrass. The rest — 16 per cent — think it’s a good idea to support a corn ethanol economy. Farmers, perhaps?

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