The holidays may be nearly over, but with wallets tightening worldwide, perhaps now is as good a time as ever to reflect (how often does that word seem to crop up in year-end blog posts?) on all the big-picture, money-draining yet far-sighted and inspirational solar projects to have emerged from the developing world this year. The maudlin nature of that statement will hopefully be counterbalanced by the actual merit of the projects or plans listed below, as we draw up a rough catalogue of some of the most exciting stories to have come out of developing nations in 2008. This list is in no way complete—it’s a scattered survey rather than a comprehensive compendium—but aims instead to look at some of the great projects, big and small, that have appeared on the grapevine this year. So here’s a spot of sunshine, in the midst of news of recession and following reports earlier this year of shrunken solar subsidies in Europe.

In no particular order:

1. Construction for Masdar City—that solar-powered, zero-carbon ecotopia nestled in the sun-soaked dunes of Arabian desert, near Abu Dhabi—commences in February. Slated for completion in 2013 as the world’s largest carbon-neutral city, the car-free community aims to act as a hub for academic and corporate research on renewable energies and will produce all of its energy from the sun.

2. A retired Canadian business executive develops solar-powered hearing aids for use in developing nations. With some 20,000 people in 30 countries using the SolarAid, which costs less than $100 apiece and whose even cheaper rechargeable battery ($1) lasts for two to three years, Howard Weinstein not only develops objects to help the hearing-impaired hear, he also enlists many to help with the production process.

3. For India, a number of solar firsts, as well as the unveiling of a National Action Plan on Climate Change. Among other plans, the NAPCC outlines its National Solar Mission, in which it sets targets of 1,000 MW/year of photovoltaic production and 1,000 MW/year of solar thermal power generation. In light of India’s high insolation potential and large population of energy users, is this a match made in heaven? Hopefully.

4. Beijing’s Green Olympics. Well, “green,” considering the environmental repercussions of any large-scale industrial project (especially one so gargantuan as that undertaken by the PRC). But with 80 to 90 percent of the venue-based streetlights and 90 percent of the hot water used by athletes in the Olympic Village solar-powered, and venues such as the Bird’s Nest coated in solar panels—not to mention the bevy of other renewable energies utilized at various other stadiums—the energy-efficient nature of these buildings, coupled with their longevity as they are recycled into performance stadiums or luxury malls, represent a new breed of construction in China, if not the world. According to an official, the measures undertaken by the ‘Green Olympics’ were expected to reduce emissions by 1 and 1.2 million tons throughout the event.

5. Winners of an MIT business competition create solar-powered refrigeration systems for poor communities in India. With power outages a problem almost worldwide, Promethean Power Systems has on their hands an invention with a wide range of applications, in a variety of locales.

6. The EU’s proposed plan for a €45 billion European supergrid meant to power all of Europe. This plan would, among other things, involve enormous farms of solar panels in the Sahara Desert. Due to the intensity of the Saharan sunlight, the photovoltaic panels in Africa are predicted to generate three times as much energy as comparable panels in Europe—a productivity level that has undoubtedly not gone amiss by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Nicolas Sarkozy, who have both lent support to the proposal.

7. Canadian start-up Morgan Solar Inc. develops a low-cost solar panel for developing nations that utilizes a “light-guided solar optic,” a riff on traditional concentrated photovoltaic systems. The solar panels (which are still in the prototype stage) are lightweight and use low-cost materials, according to Nicolas Morgan, leader of the company’s business development and brother to founder Jean Paul Morgan. At this point, however, shriveling funding poses the largest threat to the project’s ultimate success.

Please feel free to add to the list!