Not only is this sale a hopeful sign of a new emerging market for the recession-hit solar industry, but it shows the potential for rural areas in the developing world to leapfrog polluting habits of 20th century industrialization. As climate activists, it has been tough to reconcile the need to add electricity capacity for a billion of the globe’s poorest people with the need to lower greenhouse gas emissions. A crucial means to achieve both goals is by helping developing countries leapfrog from no electricity to 21st century electricity in the form of solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass.

Here’s to China successfully completing this solar application in 2009 and setting the global standard for rural electrification moving forward.

Onwards in the Sustainable Energy Transition-