Most energy technologies, including renewable energy technologies, are essentially Mechanical turbines (wind, water, or geothermal/solar steam), drilling rigs (geothermal), ethanol plants, and solar thermal collectors. The cost of such devices and their application can be reduced through improvements in materials, more sophisticated control systems, and large scale manufacturing. However, mechanical and thermal technology is fairly mature and improvements are likely to come slowly and be limited in extent. Other technologies are more on the cutting edge of scientific research, such as solid state devices (LED lamps, batteries, fuel cells), bio engineered ‘devices’ (algae for biofuel), or devices based on particle physics (fusion, advanced nuclear). Although in many cases, the technologies in the latter category are still far from being cost competitive today, they have much greater potential for future cost reduction (APERC 2009).