This is a group dedicated to the serious business of dealing with the blunt reality that the world is running out of cheap energy. We will have oil and gas for many years yet, but it will no longer be cheap, wholesale the price of gas has already gone up threefold in the past two years. As someone who works at the mighty Didcot Power Station, I am only too aware of the battle the power industry is having to fight to keep the lights on - This is the reason I have set up this group. This group isn't directly about saving the planet, or promoting green energy, it's about basic economic survival. It's about the very real energy problems that will face ordinary people in the area of 2010 and beyond. Problems that are going to get worse, MUCH worse. By the time all those new promised energy sources cut in, we will be in a huge recession that will make the 1970's oil crisis seam like a minor hiccup. This group is not to debate atomic power, or wind farms, it is about dealing with YOUR OWN problems concerning your own energy needs, so it will only debate wind power, when as a group we debate about actually putting up our own wind generators. So if your favourite energy source is atomic power, then you are also welcome to join in if you think you can build us a community fusion reactor!;-). This group is about what people can do on an individual (perhaps installing solar water heating panels), As neighbours (installing a wind turbine to supply three homes maybe), of as a community (perhaps building a small wind farm, or a coppice to grow firewood). It is also there to serve as an encouragement to others on the internet community to think about and engineer local scale energy solutions. Ultimately, this group is about how people can continue to live the 21st Century lifestyle, as energy and water consumption is forced down by runaway fuel and utillity prices.