Last week, we posted a reference to China's passage of a Renewable Energy Law, mandating that 10% of China's energy production be from renewable sources by 2020. One question that arose, due to a BBC report, was whether hydroelectric counted as renewable -- without including hydroelectric, the push to 10% renewable would be a bigger challenge and a more impressive goal. With hydro, conversely, my take was that the law was largely window-dressing.

The confusion ends here. The Center for Resource Solutions, a US-based group working with China to expand the use of renewable energy sources, confirms that hydroelectric is, indeed, considered to be part of the renewable mix. Window-dressing it is, then.