The Washington Post carries an in-depth article about Asian countries’ drive to become leaders in the clean energy technology.
Apparently South Korea plans dedicated 2 percent of its annual GDP in “environment-related and renewable energy industries over the next five years, for a total of $84.5 billionâ€. That’s quite a lot of dough. Elsewhere, “India aims to install 20 gigawatts of solar power by 2020†while “China’s new stimulus plan raises the nation’s 2020 target for solar power from 1.8 gigawatts to 20 gigawatts.†China also has big plans for wind power and hopes to increase its long-term goal to 150 gigawatts (currently it is 100).
The Americans interviewed in the report sound slightly worried that the U.S. could have trouble catching up with the Asian competition, although the country has considerable R&D power. In any case, it’s exciting to see that renewable energy is big business and it will be a yardstick of development and economic leadership in the 21st century.
