Aerial photo of the new 50mw Chinese financed and constructed solar power plant in the northeastern Kenyan city of Garissa that will allow the region to connect to the national grid for the first time.
African policymakers up and down the continent will all tell you that one issue, more than any other, stands apart as the key priority in 2020: electricity. Without additional electric power capacity, both generation and distribution, none of their ambitious industrialization plans will be possible. Industries need power to operate and right now most African countries do not have enough, presenting a major barrier to attracting new international investment that is essential to employ the hundreds of millions of young people across the continent who will become increasingly restless without meaningful jobs.
Failing to provide sufficient, reliable electric power can also lead to serious political problems as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is learning firsthand from the Eskom fiasco that has led to rolling blackouts across the country due to load shedding.
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The Bui Power Authority (BPA) in Ghana recently launched a new solar farm that’s connected to a Chinese-built hydroelectric dam. The idea here is that when water levels run low ...
By Rishikesh Ram Bhandary and Cecilia Han Springer Although Chinese President Xi Jinping announced last year that China will no longer build new coal-fired power plants overseas, the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center’s China’s ...
The G7’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII), announced on Monday, is the newest Western initiative aimed at countering the influence in the Global South of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI.) Perhaps ...
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