In case you missed them, here are some highlights from Breaking Energy this week.

First things first… There’s a solar-powered boat! And a solar-powered plane! And they’re coming to NYC! We’re giddy. So are the guys on the boat.

The multi-year downturn in natural gas drilling, caused by at times astonishingly low prices, may be poised for the start of a recovery, finally, in 2014. Oil drilling has not been facing the same problem, and with the surge in domestic production and kind of blah demand growth here in the US, export infrastructure is expanding to find a home for all of our surplus refined petroleum products.

Hurricane season is approaching…that means gearing up for power outages. Utilities are already spending a lot of money to enhance reliability, but for those that are still shopping around for ways to keep customers’ lights on, here are some ideas. (Hint: one of them is establishing private energy islands).

Will electricity, LNG or CNG win in the race to provide fuel for the US transportation sector? It looks like they’re targeting different parts of the market. Tesla’s big infrastructure push could give electricity a leg up, but some experts are warning of potential safety concerns.

And finally, our friends over at Breaking Defense have written an interesting piece on various energy initiatives in the US military – some of which are controversial – following comments by a DoD official who said that the sequester is making it tougher to get funding for energy efficiency and sustainability initiatives.