My friend and former colleague Dave Beard spent his Saturday at the MIT Energy Conference and came up with a trio of posts I would have been proud to write myself: The keynote speaker was Jim Rogers of Duke Energy, the 12th largest CO2 emitter in the world. He told the crowd that he knows they have to produce less, which is startling to hear from such an impressive coal burner as himself. "His goal: to change the rules of the business so that power companies could get credit for energy efficiency and make deals with homeowners and others to share in the cost and profits of solar," Beard reported. Link here. MIT announced it has teamed with a German institution, Fraunhofer Institute, to build a center aimed at developing solar energy and energy efficiency. Link here. Investor John Doerr also spoke at the conference. "When asked if the recent enthusiasm toward sustainable energy is a fad that could fade, as it did in the 1980s after the 1970s energy crisis, Doerr replied: 'Is this a green tech bubble? No, this is a green tech boom. ... I can assure you there is underinvestment now,''' Beard quoted him as saying. More here. Sounds like it was great. I wish I had been there.