strategies for supply development and utilization 

 efficiency. Such programs could train government 

 officials and engineers from developing countries 

 in the efficient operation and management of energy 

 systems . 



Jointly sponsored demonstration projects could be 

 held in developing countries to provide local proof 

 of the viability of technological innovation, 

 especially in less energy- intensive methods. 



2. Development of Indigenous Energy Resources 

 for Local Utilization 



Most developing countries depend primarily on 

 imported fossil fuels — chiefly oil — for their 

 industrial and agricultural growth and for rural 

 development. Consequently, these countries have been 

 hard hit by higher oil prices, a trend that is not 

 likely to be reversed. Since most developing countries 

 are unable to compensate adequately for increased oil 

 prices by increased exports, they will be in a 

 progressively poorer position to compete for fossil 

 fuels on the international market and must turn instead 

 to indigenous energy resources, including oil and gas 

 where they exist. 



In many developing countries, only a small 

 proportion of the population is served by a power and 

 fuel distribution network. The village and rural 

 areas, where most populations live, generally depend on 

 limited and expensive supplies of diesel fuel or 

 kerosene and on "noncommercial" energy sources such as 

 increasingly scarce firewood and dung or agricultural 

 residues that might be used more productively for other 

 purposes. 



Thus developing countries have two distinct needs 

 regarding energy technology. On the one hand, economic 

 growth depends on conventional energy systems that use 

 commercial energy sources and technologies. 

 Agricultural development schemes pegged to irrigation, 

 mechanization, pesticides, and manufactured nitrogen 

 fertilizers also depend on these energy sources and 

 technologies. On the other hand, rural populations, 

 isolated from a central power source, continue to rely 

 on firewood or dried dung, and would particularly 

 benefit from technologies that exploit decentralized, 

 renewable energy resources based on solar energy used 

 directly (e.g., heating, distillation, photovoltaic 

 conversion) or indirectly (e.g., wind, hydropower, 

 biomass) . Although much can be said in favor of rural 

 electrication using large, central generating 

 facilities and a widespread distribution grid, the 



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