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The article focuses on the claim of a U.S. vice president that the nation can be repowered. According to the article, the unrealistic claim is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of technical innovation. It is stated that five of ten years from 2009, the nation's pattern of energy supply and dominant modes of conversion will be the same to arrangements in 2009. However, it is stated that coming years will offer an uncommon opportunity to turn the nation's policy in a more reasonable direction, leading to a difficult but rewarding path of global energy transition.

The author discusses the technologies applied to convert primary energy into more usable forms and which provide two-thirds of the U.S. technology. The author cites that some of the technologies include steam and combustion turbines used for electric generation, and the internal combustion engines spark-and compression-ignition, which are used for transportation. He notes that the main innovation in power and transportation technology is slow and call for increased research & development (R&D).

The article reports on the Solar Revolution Project (SRP) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Chesonis Family Foundation. The $10 million funded initiative is designed to explore new materials and systems that could accelerate the availability of solar energy. Furthermore, the SRP will initially support 30 energy fellowships for students on a wide range of solar-related studies such as novel materials for energy conversion and producing hydrogen fuel from water.

The article discusses the discovery of professor Arun Majumdar and chemist Peidong Yang about a wafer-scale electrochemical synthesis technology which converts heat into electricity in the U.S. Majumdar says that a fraction of lost heat can be converted into electricity, and the impact would be massive reductions in carbon dioxide emission. Their technique implies an electroless etching, a method by which silicon nanowires are synthesized in an aqueous solution on the surfaces of the wafers.