ABC - Don Voelte on Inside Business.

Despite talk of debt markets being in lockdown, Woodside Petroleum this week confidently said it would be borrowing billions of dollars to finish one of the biggest, most ambitious Capex budgets ever seen on Australia. No equity issue for Woodside apparently. To deliver the $12 billion Pluto LNG project of the WA coast the company will be cutting costs, selling assets and talking to Banks.

ABC - Wave Power

Three companies in Australia now have well-regarded prototypes to tackle the difficulties of wave power.

Oceanlinx has its pilot wave power units off Port Kembla in NSW, floating on the water's surface. As the wave passes, the waterline in an open chamber moves up and down, displacing the air inside. That air is then pushed into the unit's built-in turbine, which creates energy, which is then piped back to shore.

The BioPower Systems pilot unit to be deployed in the King Island, Tasmania late in 2009 is fully submerged and tethered to the sea floor. As it oscillates back and forth with the waves, that motion creates power, with each unit capable of generating 250 kilowatts of power.

Carnegie Corporation is developing the third wave power solution in Fremantle, Western Australia. Unlike the other two projects, electricity generation happens onshore, rather than in the water. As the waves pass over it, motion pushes water into the system which it is pumped onshore into a generator. The water pumped ashore can also be used for desalination.

SMH - New solar cells you can bank on

IF YOU thought there was big money in solar energy, you were closer to the truth than you might have imagined. Prototypes of a new generation of flexible solar cell have been produced using equipment built to print Australia's polymer banknotes. The breakthrough, conceived by the CSIRO, has the potential to enable mass production of solar sheeting at a far lower cost than traditional silicon-based cells.

The Australian - Oil Search profit up, plans cuts on exploration spend

OIL Search has delivered a significant increase in profit and will cut back on its exploration spend to conserve cash. Profit for calendar 2008 rose 128.4 per cent on the previous corresponding period to $US313.36 million ($487.72 million) due to higher oil prices in the first half.

SMH - Coalition pins its great green hope on carbon trio

THE COALITION'S "green carbon initiative" is a three-pronged policy that aims to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by making buildings more energy efficient, having faith in clean coal and burying greenhouse pollution with a process known as biochar.

Geosequestration - the burying of greenhouse pollution underground or beneath the ocean floor - remains the great technological hope for solving climate change even though its adoption does not appear to be any time soon.

Biochar, about which researchers are optimistic, is a new hope in climate science. Biochar refers to small pellets of charcoal produced when plant waste, such as wood chips, are heated in a process called pyrolysis.

Crikey - The great Coalition climate change kerfuffle

There was a kerfuffle last week over carbon tax, which we partly contributed to. It was suggested that the Coalition was suddenly considering a carbon tax. No one in the Coalition deviated from the position that they were predisposed from an ETS, but there were other options like carbon taxes and the point was to focus on what reduced emissions, not the mechanism. All of that is eminent common sense, particularly in light of the complete dud of an ETS Penny Wong has produced, which comparatively makes an effective carbon tax a suddenly more appealing option. There was no division between the Coalition climate change triumvirate of Turnbull, Andrew Robb and Greg Hunt -- a split of responsibilities that so far is one of the few success stories of the Turnbull leadership.

But there are plenty of divisions with the Nationals. They notionally have a similar position to the Liberals. However, Ron Boswell and Barnaby Joyce have made it clear, including through their ranting and abuse of officials at Estimates this week, that they’ll have nothing to do with an ETS. In Boswell’s case, it’s because he thinks the planet is getting colder.

The Age - Eco suburb plan unveiled for city

A VISION for a suburb of the future with no cars, an 80 per cent reduction in carbon emissions and the ability to grow its own food has been unveiled by a State Government-funded thinktank. And it could happen on a site just two kilometres from the centre of Melbourne.

A 20-hectare site for the new green suburb has even been identified on land owned by VicTrack, the government body that owns the state's rail assets. The lease on the site known as E-Gate, just off Footscray Road, expires in 2014 and Major Projects Victoria has been working with VicTrack on possibilities for the land.

SmartMeters.com - Australia hopes consumers will use less power with smart meters

Residents of Australia are about to become guinea pigs to determine how price-sensitive they are with their power consumption. It is an important question that must be answered as prices continue to spiral upward.

The Age - Growing support for Werribee desal plant

A SECOND desalination plant could be built close to Melbourne in a bid to solve a looming crisis at one of Australia's most important food production zones. The push to build another desalination plant is designed to save the Werribee Irrigation District, which is estimated to supply close to half Australia's vegetables yet is facing a bleak future under present water arrangements.

ABC - QWC rules out Sun Coast for second desalination plant

The Queensland Water Commission (QWC) has ruled out Kawana on the Sunshine Coast in the state's south-east as a possible site for a second desalination plant. It also excluded South Stradbroke Island and identified Lytton on Brisbane's bayside as the most likely site for the state's second desalination plant.

Peak Energy - Harnessing the Tides: Marine Power Update 2009

Peak Energy - Cheap Hydrogen from Scraps

Peak Energy - The Canadian Oil Boom

Peak Energy - Arctic Sea Ice Underestimated Due to Faulty Sensor

Peak Energy - Zbigniew Brzezinski warns of class warfare and riots