Africa will remain poor unless it uses more energy
Greenhouse-gas emissions south of the Sahara are tiny
A window seat in a helicopter flying south-west from Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, offers an otherworldly diorama. The landscape shifts from earthly desert to Mars-red dunes, then to moonscape as the chopper nears Luderitz. In the early 1900s this tiny port was the hub for a diamond boom that brought the art-nouveau mansions that perch on the town’s slopes. More than a century on, Namibia hopes that the area will again bring riches, this time from sun, wind and land, by hosting one of Africa’s largest renewable-energy projects.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Powering Africa”
From the November 5th 2022 edition
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