I live in an African country – South Africa. The majority of our electricity consumption comes from coal-powered power stations, with one nuclear generator here in Cape Town. I disagree with your opinion that alternative power is not a viable option. While we have experienced blackouts in the past year, it is due to bad planning on the part of our major power company. During one of our recent blackouts, our local traffic lights were still working, because both a miniature windmill and solar panel power it. We do NOT need thousands of coal-fired power plants in Africa. The emissions from our existing power plants are already adding to acid rain on the crops of the poor subsistence farmers who do not have agricultural insurance and cannot afford to replace a crop which has been damaged. In addition, solar panels and windmills are an easier and safer alternative for many of our rural areas, simply because laying the thousands of miles of electricity cable is not only difficult, but time-consuming when theft of this cable happens regularly. Perhaps, instead of commenting on Africa and Asia, you should ask its occupants what they feel the best solution would be for their own areas.

PS Does anybody notice that the image of the world you have posted on this article is impossible? All the countries in the world do not experience night at the same time.