Future Pundit was full of all sorts of interesting news while I was gone, including this post on using bacteria to extract methane from coal (and a sidenote on carbon sequestration), and this post on new organic materials to make cheap solar panels. One remarkable thing to note in his discussion of the efficiency of energy generation from the panels is how low the numbers are for solar — these panels are cheap and flexible enough that the researchers think they’ll be commercially viable at 10 percent efficiency (right now they’re at 3 percent). Typical silicon photovoltaics produce at about 24 percent, but they are expensive. For a frame of reference, coal-burning electricity generation is approximately 33 percent efficient. It would be a lot higher if we had more combined heat and power, but that’s another topic …