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by breakyerself 2350 days ago
These same countries never installed land line telephone networks and yet most people in the developing world have phones now because cell phone technology came down in cost enough to outcompete any attempt at building out landline infrastructure.

As solar and wind and storage prices are are coming down fast there is good reason to expect the developing world to be able to largely be able to leapfrog fossil fuels and electrify without the expensive cost of building centralized power plants with sprawling networks of transmission lines, substations and local power lines stretching for thousands and thousands of miles zigzagging through the country side.

Same with electric cars. We are getting close to a day when electric cars will be on sale with 200+ miles of range for 22,000 that has 1/10th the cost to operate as a equivalent internal combustion engine.

The idea that fossil fuel consumption is neccessary for economic growth and standard of living is outdated. Many nations economies have already decoupled growth from fossil fuel consumption. Reducing co2 emissions while simultaneously growing their economies. Including the US.