The combination of pro-renewable energy legislation, economic stability and industrial demand are fuelling a vibrant wind power sector in Chile.

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For Americans, fear and pride are two of the best motivators to get them to do things. The writer of this article is trying to replicate the effect that happened when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik.

Americans were afraid of the Nuclear threat the launch implied plus their pride was hurt because they didn’t get into space first.

The fear of China becoming the dominate economic power plus the slap that America is not dominating technical innovation is a similar, though not equal, situation.

However, I think the reason why the competition aspect of this is important is that it is exactly what is driving at least some people and societies to act. We do still live in a largely capitalistic global society, and without economic competition, many countries would do less to move this industry forward.

There is nothing wrong in cheering for your team or your country in the Olympics, so for those who are more interested in sports (or clean energy economics) when there is someone to cheer for, this is an important matter. This is what gets them into the game.

In an idealistic world, we would all just work together to tackle the problems of the world out of pure altruism. But this is not such a world.

Wanting the US to be the ‘World Leader’ is about as PC as saying you want your state to dominate an industry. Nationalism is about as relevant as racism these days.

If the Chinese get their act together in wind turbine manufacture, for example, as they already have, then it benefits everyone as increased production volume lowers the unit price.