1. They’ve both partied in Amsterdam
2. Impossible to go a week without hearing about either of them
3. Money … big money
4. Pro on energy independence
5. Not really compatible with the simple life
6. Multi-talented, but with a long way to go before reaching meaningful, lasting success
7. Occasionally controversial, especially in California
8. Big on Google (thanks, Andrew Schlegel at Telvent!)
9. Have made appearances in the United Arab Emirates
10. Two words: electronic monitoring

Siluk joined Greenbang in 2008.

Ilett started the site as a “green business” blog in 2007. Greenbang today is a boutique analyst house that publishes daily analysis, interviews and news on the evolution of smart technology and energy markets.

Next week, Greenbang is hosting a drinks evening in New York to officially launch in the US, where Siluk is based.

“With new smart-grid developments making headlines around the clock, this is an exciting time to be running Greenbang,” Siluk said. “I’m looking forward to exploring new directions as the energy landscape itself changes so dramatically. As well as the website, I’ll be coordinating webinars, events and our research reports.”

“It’s been a brilliant ride but after four years, it’s time to move on,” said Ilett. “There are some great opportunities to follow in the US. I’ll be helping out a little with those and moving a couple of new projects onto the scene.”

Prior to joining Greenbang, Siluk wrote for the Chicago Tribune, internet.com and many other publications on sustainability, technology and science. She was editor at Web Hosting Magazine and worked as an analyst in the web-hosting industry. She also ran a book-publishing business. She holds a degree in geological sciences from Northwestern University.

Ilett previously worked as a journalist, writing for the Financial Times, the Economist Group, the Daily Telegraph and a range of business trade magazines – such as silicon.com, zdnet, SC Magazine. He began his career as a Cisco-qualified network engineer working for NTT and has a degree in Japanese language from the University of Sheffield, UK.

Getting all these devices to “talk” with one another for optimum efficiency, which is after all the idea behind a smart grid, will mean a lot of data travelling back and forth in all directions. How much data? Imagine a tsunami of bits and bytes … maybe as much as 800 terabytes of data a year, which is about how much raw web data Google processes annually.

So what do we do with that much data? How do we manage it, secure it and mine it for valuable intelligence that can make our energy habits even smarter? That’s the subject of a coming Greenbang webinar.

“What to do with smart grid data” is scheduled for 2:30 to 3:30 pm GMT Thursday, Feb. 10. A prelude to other conferences that will be presented by Greenbang later this year, the webinar event is a January special that’s free to attend. However, places are limited to the first 100 attendees, so early registration is recommended.

Online registration is available here.

The webinar will explore a range of issues associated with the development of smart grids. While deployments of smart meters and smart city infrastructure will keep moving forward in 2011, questions remain over the business models of the companies installing, controlling or owning the equipment. The data collected from smart technology is key to the success of these businesses — but what will be done with that data?

Other questions to be examined during the webinar include: Where are the business opportunities? How will the smart grid eventually improve the lives of people? What are the security risks? And what kind of regulation will there be?

Click here to register for the webinar FREE
2:30 to 3:30 pm GMT Thursday, Feb. 10

NOTE: As a January special, this online webinar event is free to attend but places are limited to 100 attendees so register early.

The most recent warning to that effect came today from WWF-UK and The Cooperative Financial Services, which together released a report titled, “Toxic fuels, toxic investments: Why we need mandatory greenhouse gas reporting.” The report finds that today’s lack of carbon reporting requirements is allowing oil and gas companies to invest heavily in high-carbon energy developments such as Canada’s tar sands without having to disclose potential future risks to investors.

“Emitting carbon dioxide will become more and more expensive in the future, as regulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is progressively tightened up,” the report’s executive summary states. “Yet oil and gas companies are not disclosing to investors the potentially huge costs they will have to pay in order to continue emitting massive amounts of CO2 and other GHGs in the future … The failure of companies to measure and disclose their exposure to future carbon costs obscures the risk associated with high-carbon investments, and contributes to a misallocation of resources.”

And that’s in the UK, which falls under the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme that is at least trying to establish a baseline price for carbon pollution. Such is not the case with top polluters China — which is talking about implementing “half-mandatory” carbon trading by 2014 — and the US, where the much-vaunted hope for a climate bill before this November’s mid-term elections has withered into a resounding “Nope.”

Such developments in the world’s number-one and number-two carbon emitting countries threaten existing carbon markets that are already struggling in the ongoing shaky economy. With EU carbon prices at record lows, carbon brokers are losing their jobs left and right.

Could this be a precursor to the first death rattles for carbon trading? Energy analyst/investment advisor Chris Nelder seems to think so, warning that the carbon emissions legislation game is one that “cannot be won.” His solution? For the US, anyway, he believes the answer lies with a comprehensive energy plan that incorporates all energy sources, phases in an increasing proportion of renewables and makes the most of “every last BTU.”

But is that realistic? Can we really transition from fossil fuels to clean energy using the approach of carrots for renewables versus sticks for oil, gas and coal? And can we do it in a reasonable time frame that addresses both declining fossil fuel reserves and accelerating climate change?

Where do you place your bets? Let us know.

Obviously, sellers don’t want to spend too much money because they are selling their homes. However, a few green tips can help them achieve improvements without costing a fortune. Following are five tips to get home-sellers started in the right direction:

1. Household fixtures: Showers, sinks and toilets can waste a lot of water if they are not fitted with energy-efficient controls. Fittings to control the flow of water are fairly cheap to buy and, in most cases, you can install them yourself. The advantage of having these low-water control fittings is you don’t waste water and you will notice the difference in your water bills when they come in. That’s something you can point out to a potential buyer.
2. Electrical appliances: Many of the electrical items you buy these days will have already been adapted to be energy efficient. However, appliances that came as fixtures with your house might not be quite as up to date. Check your dishwasher and see if it has energy- and water-efficient stickers on it. These stickers are found on items that have already been adapted for maximum energy efficiency. You might find, if your house is a few years old, that fixtures like your water heater do not meet eco-friendly standards. Replacing it with an approved Energy Star-rated heater will result in savings on your power and water. So whilst you may not want to spend any money, you could save more in the long run by having a more energy-efficient water heater installed.
3. Insulation: You would be amazed at the difference proper insulation makes to your home. Instead of sweltering in summer or freezing in winter, having good insulation puts back some control over the temperatures in your house. Insulation doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive, either; many DIY stores sell insulation that you can install yourself. Even if you want to fix only some of the small areas that let in draughts, such as round doorways and windows, you’re still adding value to your property.
4. Floors: Polished wood floors add that extra bit of appeal to a home, which accounts for their popularity with many home-buyers. But wood floors are expensive both to buy and install. An environmentally friendly alternative is bamboo. You still get the natural wood effect in your house, but with less expense and the added bonus of being a natural, eco-friendly product. Bamboo is extremely durable and suitable for most rooms, and can be purchases in tiles, strips or planks for easy installation.
5. Thermostats: Not always an obvious consideration when looking at energy saving, but one well worth thinking about. Being able to program your thermostat and maintain constant temperatures throughout your home will make a huge difference to your power bill. If you are at work in the day and don’t want to waste energy and money keeping your house cool, you can set your thermostat to automatically start cooling or heating your home at a time that suits. Programmable thermostats are reasonably inexpensive to buy and can be purchased from most of the larger hardware stores.

It’s also a good idea to have a talk with your real estate agent and get his or her suggestions on green tips you could use to improve the value of your home and save you money in the meantime.

Editor’s note: This article was written by William Eve, who writes about saving money, investment loans and real estate for Home Loan Finder, which also provides information for first-time home-buyers and those looking to refinance.

In its latest interim management statement, issued this week, SSE reported that “weather conditions” during April, May and June contributed to a full 30 per cent drop in electricity output from its wind farms, hydroelectric facilities and Slough biomass heat and power plant. Output from those sources fell to 700 gigawatt-hours during that period, compared to the 1,000 gigawatt-hours generated during the last quarter of 2009.

While SSE didn’t elaborate on those “weather conditions,” one factor certainly had to be the fact that the first half of 2010 saw the “driest first six months of the year for 100 years,” according to the UK’s Met Office. And, as the climate continues changing, Britain can expect that type of situation to become more common, the agency warns.

If hydroelectric power sources are threatened by climate change, wind energy’s greatest shortcoming is its great variability, Lovelock warns in his latest book, The Vanishing Face of Gaia:

“Used sensibly, in locations where the fickle nature of wind is no drawback, it is a valuable local resource, but Europe’s massive use of wind as a supplement to baseload electricity will probably be remembered as one of the great follies of the twenty-first century … ,” he writes.

Lovelock argues the only clean energy sources that make sense for society are nuclear and solar thermal energy. All the rest aren’t viable without heavy injections of government subsidies and green cheerleading, he says.

Lovelock acknowledges he sometimes takes a bit of hyperbolic licence to make his points — as when he warned that global warming will lead to a die-off of billions of humans this century, resulting in only a “few breeding pairs of people” left in the Arctic. But does he have a point here? Is the bit of news from SSE a warning sign that we’d be better off by aggressively developing nuclear and concentrating solar power (such as that proposed in the Desertec project), and forgetting more intermittent clean-energy sources?

What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.