Lattice Energy LLC Google Insights and Selected Energy Topics April 04 2009

Lattice Energy LLCCommercializing a Next-Generation Source of Safe Nuclear EnergyLow Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENRs)Use of the Google ‘Insights for Search Beta’ as a possible tool for helping to assess changes in public interest about selected topics involving the subject of energyBrief Preliminary Report“Energy, broadly defined, has become the most important geostrategic and geoeconomic challenge of our time.”Thomas FriedmanNew York Times, April 28, 2006Contact: (312) 861-0115 or lewisglarsen@cs.comDemocratizing worldwide access to flexible, low-cost distributed power generation April 04, 2009Copyright 2009 Lattice Energy LLC All Rights ReservedPage 1 of 14Lattice Energy LLC•In August 2008, Google introduced a To use this new analytical tool yourself potentially important new analytical and explore this or other topics of tool called ‘Insights for Search Beta’interest, please go to:http://www.google.com/insights/search/#•Lattice has been utilizing this tool The instructions on the webpage are since September 2008 to help assess self-explanatory; the texplanatory; the tool itself is very potential trends and changes in intuitive, albeit relatively newpublic interest about certain selected Please recognize that Google’s topics (as reflected in the frequency underlying databases for Insights only of use/choice of specific search go back to 2004, so we are not dealing terms) involving the subject of energy with a very long time-series of data ---that is a significant caveat•This brief preliminary report presents Another caveat is that Latticeattice’s choice some interesting data about search of search terms to input was highly term volumes concerning energy that selective; their bias reflects our selective; their bias reflects our we have uncovered using this tool. subjective worldview of energyWe are sharing this with the Google That having been said, we are excited user community to elicit comments about new possibilities that might be and stimulate broader use of the tool enabled by this unique analytical tool Democratizing worldwide access to flexible, low-cost distributed power generation April 04, 2009Copyright 2009 Lattice Energy LLC All Rights ReservedPage 2 of 14Lattice Energy LLC•Comments and conclusions expressed To understand details of Lattice’s worldview on energy, please go to:in this Lattice report are preliminary, admittedly speculative, and potentially http://www.i-sis.org.uk/scienergy.phpsubject to substantial revision as more In our worldview, LENRs represent a and better data is accumulated over timepotentially game-changing clean, 'green' nuclear energy technology. Unlike more familiar fission and fusion power •Since the underlying data time-series is generation technologies that are based on less than 5 years old and Google’s tool what we physicists call the 'strong is very new, there may be underlying interaction,' LENRs are instead dominated statistical bias and evanescent artifacts by the 'weak interaction.' This fundamental difference in the underlying physics of present that affect the tool’s output in energy generation could enable LENR ways that are likely to be poorly technology to have major competitive understood and impossible to anticipateadvantages over fission and fusion because LENRs do not produce any significant fluxes of dangerous energetic •Nonetheless, some of the results we neutrons, 'hard' gamma radiation, and/or have uncovered are very interesting and any appreciable amounmounts of environmentally dangerous, long-lived may be worth monitoring going forward radioactive isotopes.Democratizing worldwide access to flexible, low-cost distributed power generation April 04, 2009Copyright 2009 Lattice Energy LLC All Rights ReservedPage 3 of 14Lattice Energy LLCRemarks about Google Insights results to be presented:What follows are actual Windows ‘PrtScrn’ images of the results of selected search terms that were input to Google Insights; nothing whatsoever has been altered --- the slide images presented represent ‘raw’ results Each result is dated, so viewers can see exactly when each Insights graph was created; please be aware that such results can be volatile and may change significantly over time. Indeed, the sudden, unexpected appearance of ‘low energy nuclear reactions’ as a significant string of search terms for the very firstirst time (since September 2008) on April 02, 2009, tme (since September 2008) on April 02, 2009, then changed on April 04, 2009, when a second earlier ‘spike’ from August 2007 appeared. At this point, it is unclear whether the ‘new’ 2007 event is some sort of artifact In our opinion, trying to correlate changes in search term frequencies with specific news items is very problematic. In some cases, cause-and-effect appears superficially ‘obvious,’ such as with the controversial, widely reported March 23, 2009, American Chemical Society (ACS) press release on LENRs. In many other cases, causality is very murky at best. Trends in such data or significant changes in longstanding trends may be better indicators of what might actually be happening to public interest in a given topicDemocratizing worldwide access to flexible, low-cost distributed power generation April 04, 2009Copyright 2009 Lattice Energy LLC All Rights ReservedPage 4 of 14Lattice Energy LLCSubject to previously noted caveats, preliminary conclusions from our investigations with “Insights’ to date are as follows:At least in the United States, during the past year there may have been some sort of potentially important ‘epiphany’ or sea-change in public interest on the topic of energy, insofar as such a shift would be reflected in the form of increased volumes of Google searches involving the keyword ‘energy’Interestingly, although search volumes involving ‘oil price’ spiked sharply upward in 2008, they have since (as of April 2009) reentered the upper-third of the old multiyear trading range. Perhaps significantly, search volumes in ‘energy’ and ‘green energy’ have gone on to make new highs in 2009, even though the price of oil has dropped substantially from its highs back in 2008Search volumes in the topic of ‘nuclear energy’ have been declining since 2004. Although the chart appears to be ‘bottoming out,’ the data is unclear whether interest in the topic is poised to enter a new uptrend Democratizing worldwide access to flexible, low-cost distributed power generation April 04, 2009Copyright 2009 Lattice Energy LLC All Rights ReservedPage 5 of 14Lattice Energy LLCPreliminary speculative conclusions continued:Search volumes involving the terms ‘green energy’ entered a prolonged uptrend in 2007. The data appears to indicate that search volumes and public interest in the topic may be further accelerating in 2009Search volumes involving ‘cold fusion energy’ have been declining since 2004. Although the chart appears to be ‘bottoming out,’ the chart data is unclear whether search volumes on that topic may be poised to enter a new uptrend or remain where they are For the first time, on April 02, 2009, search volumes for the terms ‘low energy nuclear reactions’ were large enough to be visible on Google Insights. As noted earlier, there may be a 2007 ‘artifact’ that appears in the April 04 data. It is presently unclear whether such data signals the beginning of a significant new trend of public interest in low energy nuclear reactions (LENRs), or whether it is a one-time event that was triggered by a sensational ACS news story propagating widely across the Internet. Time will tell on this one. Democratizing worldwide access to flexible, low-cost distributed power generation April 04, 2009Copyright 2009 Lattice Energy LLC All Rights ReservedPage 6 of 14Approximately July-August 2008, the search term ‘energy’ breaks-out through the top of a multi-year trading range. In price series of physical commodities, such behavior would be highly indicative of a major shift in market perception. An ‘epiphany.’ Please note that the United After a brief (normal) correction into the States, upper-third of the previous multi-year Australia, and trading range, in early 2009, the search India are the term ‘energy’ again breaks-out through the largest top of the trading range and goes on to contributors to make new highs as of April 04, 2009. If this these changes were a price series, it would be accorded in the behavior extraordinary behavioral significance. of the search term ‘energy.’ Page 7 of 14After being in a multi-year trading range, the search terms ‘oil price’ break out of the previous pattern in April-May 2008, peak in October 2008, and then again reenter the upper-third of the old trading range in February 2009. It remains to be seen whether the frequency of these Google search terms will stabilize at current values and, at some point in the future, enter a new regime of a sustained uptrend. Something to monitor carefully over the next year or two. ??? Page 8 of 14Use of the search terms ‘nuclear energy’ has been in a long, steady decline since 2004. However, there are recent hints that it may be attempting to ‘break out’ of its multi-year ‘trading range.’ However, to date the evidence for such a change in level of interest as reflected in queries submitted to the Google search engine are inconclusive. Page 9 of 14Please note that the uptrend in the use of the search terms ‘green energy’ accelerates significantly in 2009The search terms ‘green energy’ leave a ‘trading range’ and begin a major uptrend in early 2007Especially note that the US, UK, India, and the United Arab Emirates are major contributors to the use of the search terms ‘green energy.’ Page 10 of 14