A new report from the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and Greenpeace International concludes that renewable energy could provide all global energy needs by 2090. “Energy [R]evolution: A Sustainable World Energy Outlook” provides a blueprint how. (Download the 210-page report here.)

The blueprint calls for a structural shift to decentralized power systems, among other things. No big shock there, but it’s genuinely encouraging to see the appearance of such practical, long-term, stepwise prescriptions for governments.

“Countries such as China and India are well placed to take the enormous investment opportunity presented by the energy revolution,” said G. Ananthapadmanabhan, an international programme director at Greenpeace International. “It would be retrogressive for them to focus on fossil fuels to power their rapid economic growth.”

Hallelujah, brother! Even if it’s no surprise to hear Greenpeace take this kind of position, I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Turns out China’s hydropower push isn’t limited to giant centrally managed projects like the controversial Three Gorges Dam… An army of small hydro plants with capacities of less than 25MW are lighting up local areas at a growing rate. For the most part, the plants are supplying local needs, not feeding the national grid — which is good news, considering that construction has helped preserve woodlands and combat erosion. The plants are enabling communities that would otherwise rely on deforestation for cooking and heating fuel needs to switch to electric.

The outcome of this bottom up approach? The small plants generate 50,000 MW total today, a figure that is growing at about 6,000 MW annually, according to this summary by Bruno de Wachter in the Leonardo ENERGY blog.

For more detail, see a longer article from India’s Hindu Business Line, which links the trend to Indian consultant V.K. Damodaran — a U.N. expert who has long championed small hydropower solutions for rural communities without getting much traction in his native country, India.