Diamonds. *scoff* If it took copper, then it might be something serious.
HAHAHA! Yes! I find myself missing copper, tin and dirt the most. I'm producing UU-Matter like crazy though. Just built my first Ultimate Hybrid Solar Panel last night.
But, addressing OP:
Don't be afraid to branch out to BuildCraft! If you still want to use EU energy sources, you can build electrical engines that convert EU to MJ. I would suggest using a pulverizer rather than a macerator for...everything
except silk-touched redstone ore and silk-touched coal (and I could be missing something. Just check NEI whenever you plan on grinding something to see what yields most). And if you aren't silk-touching your redstone, I would suggest doing that from now on. Pulverizers have a chance of a bonus output for certain ground materials, and I'm pretty sure they work faster than macerators. Plus the input/output configuration on BC machines is fantastic. And then you can build an Induction Smelter (also BC), and get the same ingot output that you get with grinding/smelting, but with the added bonus of occasionally producing rich slag, which will triple your ingot production (I suggest saving your rich slag for gold, and sometimes copper and tin when in dire need). But really, don't be intimidated by it. BuildCraft is fantastic (especially with Thermal Expansion), and it's not too hard to master.
The way I got enough fuel for my fires (before I made my tree farm), was growing giant jungle trees. I would spend about 3 straight Minecraft days just growing, chopping and burning jungle logs. It's tedious, but you'll have plenty of fuel before you know it (especially with both of you working on it), and you can use that time to set up a more reliable, efficient means of creating energy. And don't rule out the use of water/windmills. They are low yield, but...free energy is always fantastic, and it can definitely supplement your coal needs and reduce the amount of time you spend harvesting coal. And by the way, if you're trying to build a good solar array, STOP BURNING YOUR COAL. You'll need lots of coal dust. And if you have silk-touch, start mining coal that way and macerating it, as that will yield 2 coal dust per ore.
One of the reasons I'm telling you to get into BuildCraft is the presence of the Tesseract. And if you're trying to power a thermal generator, a Liquid Tesseract can be used to teleport lava from a source of your choosing. No more elaborate pipe jobs. Put a pump, liquid tesseract, and chunkloader in the Nether, and you have an infinite geothermal generator.
The best thing you can do is to figure out how you can play these mods off one another to your advantage. If I can do it, you guys can do it. TRUST ME. My house was pretty gnarly looking for a while. Lots of naked machinery and craziness. I guess that hasn't changed, but...Now there's MORE naked machinery, and it all works better