ABSTRACT
In the mid-1970s, when donor agencies began to take a greater interest in energy issues, they were responding in part to a desperate and collective Southern plea for assistance. Combined with increased awareness of the global environmental effects of deforestation, support for alternative forms of environmentally-friendly energy seemed a logical new direction for the development establishment. The Pavlovian donor rush to renewable sources of energy for power generation has been both short-sighted and inadequate. There is nothing especially sacrosanct about renewable energy unless it can out-perform the more mature approaches, technically and economically over time. Nuclear power is high in capital cost, and most Third World projects have run into a myriad of technical, financial and political problems. Modern technology is more sophisticated and costly, and Third World countries start with fewer technical and economic resources, and with lower levels of rural development.
