In other news, this may be important:

RESEARCHERS DEVELOP NEW SOURCE OF ENERGY USING NANOTECHNOLOGY, August 16
Reaction Can Occur in Microseconds on Surfaces as Small as Microchips

Countries across the world continue to search for new ways to create energy. As our current means for energy continue to deplete, thus making them more expensive to generate, governments are searching for new energy resources. Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia have developed a more efficient source of energy involving nano-scale particles that take only microseconds to create and can be developed on a surface as small as a microchip.

Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news5830.html

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One of the biggest issues in recapturing energy set loose by large scale processes (sunlight and tides) in the seas and atmosphere is the problem of energy density. Although rebuffed by experts I have always thought this was possibly soluble by addressing the issue of economic scaling to the micro-scale. Traditionally you build vanes and tidal generators big to capture as much energy as possible at least cost. If it were possible to produce a million tiny devices for the cost of one large one, yet capture energy from more and different situations, it would be a major step forward.

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