Here's a heart-and-mind-warming article on the Chinese energy front - China is taking a leadership role in exporting solar energy technology and expertise to developing countries (via WorldChanging):
Chinese scientists are to train 10,000 technicians from African and other developing countries in the use of solar energy technologies over the next five years.
Describing the plans, Xi Wenhua, director of both the Institute of Natural Energy (INE) and the China Solar Energy Information Centre, told SciDev.Net the training will include programmes on small-scale solar power generation and solar-powered heating and irrigation.
The scale of training will be greatly expanded next year, and China will not only host training programmes but also send staff to other developing countries, mainly in Africa, to help train people there.
"Training African technicians to use solar power is part of the China-Africa science and technology cooperation agreement signed by the Chinese science minister and African counterparts during president Hu Jintao's visit to Ethiopia last December,'' says Xi.
According to Xi, China has some of the most advanced and practical solar energy technologies of any developing country. While admitting that China's solar energy technologies are less efficient than those of Germany, Japan and the United States, he adds that the cost of producing them is much lower than in industrialised countries.
While solar energy is still several times more expensive to produce than fossil fuel or nuclear electricity in China, it actually becomes a relatively efficient solution when compared with the costs of providing electricity to rural or remote areas 'off the grid.' Which could obviously be invaluable to the developing countries China will be targeting - a huge potential market for the growing Chinese solar industry. It's potentially a win-win initiative that the US would do well to emulate in its own relations with China, who will continue to have the largest sustained effect on world energy market of any developing or developed country for decades/centuries/ever, as often noted in this space.