Vietnam has drawn up plans to mine local uranium for its first civilian nuclear power plant, which is expected to come online in 2020.

According to Bloomberg, the project aims to extract about 8,000 metric tons of uranium octaoxide from the central province of Quang Nam.

“If coal is the short-term solution to the world’s energy needs, uranium is the long-term play,” says Jason Simpkins in Money Morning.

China is already the world leader in producing solar cells – now it wants to make a grab other sectors of the alternative energy market.

“Prepare for the onslaught of relatively inexpensive Chinese turbines,” said Steve Sawyer, head of the Global Wind Energy Council, in Wired magazine.

In 2007, China became the world’s number one producer of photo-voltaic cells, holding 35% of the market. Sawyer reckons that China will make enough equipment to generate 10 gigawatts of power annually by 2010 — more than half the capacity that the whole world installed in 2007.

Renewable energy is “Mickey Mouse.”

That was the dismissive view of one-time Boom Town Rat and anti-poverty campaigner, Bob Geldhof, in a global warming debate last December.

The French are a canny lot…

While we have been arguing with Greenpeace and fudging our energy strategy Les Gaulois have been quietly continuing to generate nuclear power and remain relatively unconcerned by the upcoming energy crunch…