Electricity Storage: the holy grail of the renewables industry

It seems that despite the new Smart Grids (a new type of grid that leverages on communication technology, allowing to save energy by better managing supply and demand) without a cheap and efficient mechanism to store energy, the role of renewables as a major component of the world's energy mix is still far from reality.

The intermittence of renewable energy sources (like wind and solar) is still a major factor that calls for a technological breakthrough that would allow to store energy in times of low demand and advance towards the replacement of fossil fuel energy generation.

Check out this article on FT.com here

Esther Duflo - Ending Povery

Esther Duflo, MIT economist and co-founder of the Poverty Action Lab, asks why the worlds poorest people tend to stay poor. Duflos pioneering research applies randomized trials, used extensively in drug discovery research, to development economics. What she discovers are strategies for transforming current approaches to development policy.

Source: Youtube

Which countries have had most, and least, GDP growth per person since 2001?

In a technology driven world, natural resources rich countries seem to have the best conditions for economic growth. The chart below makes me think about the accuracy of the capital accumulation model of growth (Solow Model) and it's relevance today.

Equatorial Guinea -a country that has largely exploited its oil reserves in the last decade- seem to have the highest GDP per capita growth. On the other hand, largely devastated countries with a social conflict and lack of institutions like Zimbabwe and Haiti, have the lowest measure of GDP per capita.

Check out this interesting chart from The Economist:

Source: The Economist On-Line at: http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/06/gdp-growth?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/dc/haresandtortoises