[CliffordK (OP)]

An interesting "alternative energy" program that I heard about recently was Idaho Power doing cloud seeding.

Essentially the idea is that if they do cloud seeding, it increases winter snowfall in the mountains, which in turn increases summertime water flow for hydroelectric power generation and agriculture. 

Their estimate is that their cloud seeding adds as much as 15% to the mountain snowpack.

I suppose the idea is that in the winter, try to get the snowfall where it is needed, not where it is unwanted.

[evan_au]

Overall, Australia has a very dry climate, and cloud-seeding experiments have been tried over many years (and are still continuing). It seems that the most vocal proponents in Australia are in Tasmania, which is one of the cooler and damper parts of the country.

However, it is very hard to prove statistically that cloud seeding is responsible for rainfall/snowfall (ie the 15% may be very rough).

More at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding#Effectiveness