How would abundant energy change the the game... ?

Transition time and cost - some 40 to 60 years to scale and spread globally if a crash program were implemented, $50 to $100 trillion in cost of labor and materials for new infrastructure (assuming no debt nor resource availability  nor weather-related nor civil unrest problems)

Debt problems not solved - massive debt, much of it tied to the infrastructure above (e.g. - loans to pay off the building of coal plants, etc.), limiting the above

Plastics, petro-chemicals, pesticides and fertilizers - still need fossil fuels

Population issues not solved - massive pressures in demographic trends (aging and costs in First World, growth in Developing World)

Natural resources depletion not solved - soil fertility, useable water, fish stocks, rare metals, minerals (phosphates, potash)

Clmate change - disruptions and costs and delays

Poet

Jim:

You mean if it were actually to work, it would be that cheap in cost and resources, and so quick to manufacture, that a billion such units coujld be super-glued atop of existing cars, trucks, trains, boats, ships, and other fossil-fuel guzzlers... causing oil companies and oil-producing nations would cry big tears and go bankrupt and suffer revolution and regime change, respectively, within 10 years? Something like that?

Poet

I did a little piece on the Ramifications of Cheap Energy for Ruby Carat.

The proof reader had to go I am afraid.

Basic thrust was that exponential growth would force our hand. There will be orders of magnitude more people living at the moon's L4 and 5 at some not too distant future.

It has struck me as a bit odd that we recently "discovered" an object captured by one of the Legrange points. (Nah. Probably just a rock)

This is side crackingly funny when viewed from the bottom of the Gravity Well.

It is well to remember that laughter's roots are in the "All Clear" signal of our Ape ancestors. The hoots they made were a response to decreasing threat levels.

the latest from the Pure Energy Systems website:

http://pesn.com/2012/01/14/9602012_Momentous_Breakthroughs_Announced_During_Anniversary_E-Cat_Interview/

So as well as the 1 MW unit, there is also going to be a 10 KW unit for the home, and a robot-powered factory to make a million of them will be up and running within a year !

Already the design of the unit has changed - it will only contain one reactor core, and will not have a Hydrogen cylinder, but "a material that can absorb and release Hydrogen". And the control systems are going to be entirely redesigned with assistance of National Instruments.

Not only that, but the steam temperature has been increased to 400°C. Presumably this would require a complete redesign of the turbine and the treatment of the exhaust which would still be at very dangerous temperatures (for the home at least). Oh yes, and they are going to change the gaskets used - to stop leaks. Leaks ? They never told us about those before !

How anybody can think they are going to get approvals for a home unit capable of producing 400° steam for six months and containing Hydrogen I don't know.

And then here comes another feature out of left field. The reactor now included a radio frequency generator (never been mentioned before) which " allows the forces that would normally prevent the fusion process from taking place (Coulomb forces) to work for you, and not against you." The full theory of how the system works will be revealed, "soon," he [Rossi] said.

So he has been busy - after announcing the 10 KW version, he has changed the number of reactors, the Hydrogen storage system, the turbine, the exhaust, the gaskets, and invented a radio frequency generator that overcomes Coulomb Forces.

DamntheMatrix said,

"And then here comes another feature out of left field. The reactor now included a radio frequency generator (never been mentioned before) which " allows the forces that would normally prevent the fusion process from taking place (Coulomb forces) to work for you, and not against you." The full theory of how the system works will be revealed, "soon," he [Rossi] said."

This is sounding more and more complex, more and more absurd.  An Rf generator would generally mean that you are trying to incite a plasma, and they consume quite a bit of electricity;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_%28physics%29

I found this very thoughtful debunking of eCAT, written by a Physicist from Brookhaven National Labs.  Here is the basis of the argument against the possibility that eCAT is achieving the transmutation of Ni --> Cu.  

http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2011/12/the_nuclear_physics_of_w...

"There are five known stable isotopes of Nickel, and here on Earth they are found in the percentages shown in the chart above. These isotope ratios are the same on Earth as they are in meteorites and in the Sun, and are pretty universal to any sample of nickel naturally found here on Earth.

If you want to create copper from any of these elements by adding a proton (hydrogen nucleus) to them, here are the reactions you're looking for:

• ⁵⁸Ni + ¹H → ⁵⁹Cu*,
• ⁶⁰Ni + ¹H → ⁶¹Cu*,
• ⁶¹Ni + ¹H → ⁶²Cu*,
• ⁶²Ni + ¹H → ⁶³Cu*,
• ⁶⁴Ni + ¹H → ⁶⁵Cu*.

That doesn't look so prohibitive, does it? Of course, there is the fact that you've got to overcome the tremendous Coulomb barrier (the electrical repulsion between nickel and hydrogen nuclei), which -- according to our knowledge of nuclear physics -- requires temperatures and pressures not found naturally

anywhere

in the Universe. Not in the Sun, not in the cores of the most massive stars, and (to the best of our knowledge) not

even

in supernova explosions!"