Companies specializing in centralized fossil fuel fired generation need to move towards energy efficiency and diversity of generation, Scottish and Southern Energy, Britain’s second largest energy supplier, said today.

“The days of meeting an unchecked demand for energy through monolithic carbon intensive power stations are coming to an end. Increasingly the emphasis will be on energy efficiency, renewables, cleaned up fossil fuel plant and micro generation,” the company said in a statement accompanying its full-year results, according to Britain’s The Guardian newspaper.

Recently, legendary Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens made headlines with another big bet on energy…but it was No ordinary oil & gas investment.

As crude oil prices smash the $135-a-barrel barrier for the first time, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia say they will take action to protect their state-owned oil companies.

“If oil prices keep going up, it is simply not in any country’s best interest to keep subsidizing these prices indefinitely,” says Peter Gastreich, a UBS oil and gas analyst, in the Financial Times.

Money Morning Investment Director Keith Fitz-Gerald – one of the first global financial gurus to predict triple-digit oil prices – has boosted his target price for crude oil from $187 to $225.

Solar stocks rose yesterday as crude oil prices hovered around $122 a barrel. According to Forbes, however, gains in solar stocks were more psychological than operational.

Even though oil accounts for 2% of electricity production in this country–a negligible amount–the high-flying solar sector rallied on the back of black-gold’s gains.

Cautious trading seen ahead of Fed. Gold stayed almost entirely within a tight $5 range from the far East straight through the New York session on Monday, finishing at $893.20, up $8.20 from Friday. Overnight, gold has fallen off.