Foreign Policy Blogs

Harnessing the Sun

Twenty German companies are working together to harness the North African sun to provide up to 15% of all German electricity needs while at the same time providing power within North Africa. Certainly the sun is a renewable resource that Africa enjoys in abundance. And if it works, this might prove to be the sort of partnership that brings development to Africa as well as a fruitful locus of cooperation between Europe and Africa. Such an endeavor could provide a model, with the added benefit of being environmentally friendly and forward looking.

 

Author

Derek Catsam

Derek Catsam is a Professor of history and Kathlyn Cosper Dunagan Professor in the Humanities at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. He is also Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University. Derek writes about race and politics in the United States and Africa, sports, and terrorism. He is currently working on books on bus boycotts in the United States and South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s and on the 1981 South African Springbok rugby team's tour to the US. He is the author of three books, dozens of scholarly articles and reviews, and has published widely on current affairs in African, American, and European publications. He has lived, worked, and travelled extensively throughout southern Africa. He writes about politics, sports, travel, pop culture, and just about anything else that comes to mind.

Areas of Focus:
Africa; Zimbabwe; South Africa; Apartheid

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