Notable stories from the week

• SmartMoney posted this good interview with Tim Woodward of Nth Power, one of the best-known energy tech pureplay VCs. Worth checking out...
  

• Fascinating post on CleantechBlog describing GE's decision to back away from superconducting turbines.
  

• The recent State of the Union speech's highlighting of alternative energy sources (notwithstanding actual budgetary decisions to the contrary) has of course re-energized the debate we've mentioned before about the viability of biofuels. To keep up on the latest, read this article in the NYT and the rebuttal from green guru Joel Makower.

• Great article on the intersection of cleantech, nanotech and advanced materials.

• Good interview with Ron Kenedi of Sharp Solar.
  

• Amusing reads: Herb Greenberg slams ECD (sub req'd). Huge Brita filters for St. Paul, MN? And for those with a particular interest in following the vagaries of oil prices and their impact on the economy, here's an interesting analysis of last year's predictions, and a forecast for this year from an admitted pessimist... "From the very first time I cranked up my oil depletion model in 2003, the events of this year have exuded a bad karma. Although I have fine-tuned my model over a hundred times, the result is always the same. 2006 does not look good." Perhaps "amusing read" isn't the best label...