Foreign Policy Blogs

Tag Archives: solar

India Continues Building Trade Ties With Africa

India Continues Building Trade Ties With Africa

India’s external trade has grown significantly with the continent across the Indian Ocean. There are many similarities the regions share in both challenges and opportunities, and plans are evolving to strengthen partnerships.

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Pioneer School Providing An Amazing Opportunity

Pioneer School Providing An Amazing Opportunity

Electricity provides a way out of poverty, offering the ability to connect with the outside world and to relay events domestically and globally.

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Filling Ethiopia’s Power Void

Filling Ethiopia’s Power Void

East Africa is on the verge of personifying an energy transformation. New advances in natural gas, wind, geothermal, solar power and potentially oil are emerging to feed the hungry markets, while large hydro will continue to expand as well. Ethiopia, a country of 92 million and 7+ percent economic growth, has been a driver in […]

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Efforts to Light Africa Increase

Efforts to Light Africa Increase

President Obama’s trip to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania was touted as a commitment to begin a new partnership with the rising continent. Home to 6 of the 10 fasted growing economies, Africa has made great strides – the International Monetary Fund predicts growth of 5.4 percent this year and 5.7 percent next year, but […]

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Can a Solar Tariff Spark a Trade War?

Can a Solar Tariff Spark a Trade War?

  The struggle for positioning in the solar energy marketplace took another turn. On June 4 Karel de Gucht, the European Commissioner for Trade, announced a new 11.8 percent tariff to be applied to imported Chinese made solar panels, and photovoltaic cells and polysilicon wafers, two system components. To avoid an additional increase escalating to […]

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Will Ghana Overcome its New Energy Challenge?

Will Ghana Overcome its New Energy Challenge?

Ghana has been forced to cope with increased energy shortages as a result of damages to the West African Gas Pipeline, dating back to Aug. 28, 2012. The $1 billion, 650 kilometer long pipeline, built to carry gas from Nigeria to Benin, Togo and Ghana, was severely damaged during an incident between a Togolese Navy […]

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A More Inclusive Global Energy Paradigm

A More Inclusive Global Energy Paradigm

As part of the European Union’s support for the U.N.’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative, E.U. Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs announced with visiting Djibouti Prime Minister Dileita Mohamed Dileita that the E.U. would provide funding for a combined renewable energy and water desalinization plant. The plant, to be built near Djibouti City, is to provide water […]

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US-China Solar Power Trade Dispute Looms

US-China Solar Power Trade Dispute Looms

On October 19, seven American solar manufacturing companies asked the government to slap 100% tariffs on Chinese solar imports alleging unfair trading practices. The Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing’s President Gordon Brinser said, “Chinese producers have used – and continue to use – continuous increases in production capacity and output, fueled by unprecedented levels of […]

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First US Hybrid Solar-NatGas Plant Unveiled in Florida

Florida’s political bigshots spent part of the week-end at the country’s first hybrid solar/natural gas power plant. Florida Power and Light’s Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center has more than 190,000 mirrors that cover about 500 acres (202.34 hectares). The mirrors track the sun during the day to focus the sun’s rays onto water-filled pipes. […]

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China's Smart Grid Ambitions Could Open Door to US-China Cooperation

China's Smart Grid Ambitions Could Open Door to US-China Cooperation

China’s largest electric transmission company has announced an ambitious plan to develop a national smart grid by 2020 that would help utilities and their customers transport and use energy more efficiently. The sheer size of the project raises some intriguing questions. First, about whether China has the capital and technology for such an extensive upgrade. […]

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Biden on tour boasts about green job creation, but is all green all good

Biden on tour boasts about green job creation, but is all green all good

Vice President Joe Biden is on a victory tour, swinging through the country exulting the $787 billion stimulus package as a green job creator. In Denver, he boasted about the $11 billion for improving the electricity grid as well as the estimated 450,000 new jobs the bill will create. Despite the difficulty in defining a […]

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Chinese Solar Company Plans U.S. Manufacturing Plant

Chinese Solar Company Plans U.S. Manufacturing Plant

China-based solar producer Suntech Power announced plans this week to build a manufacturing facility in the United States to serve the growing U.S. market for large-scale utility projects and to take advantage of government incentives. “We believe in the outstanding long-term prospects of the solar energy market in the United States” Suntech Chairman and CEO […]

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China Solar Subsidies Address Economic, not Environmental, Problems

Last week’s news of a sizable and unprecedented subsidy for solar installations in China generated noteworthy commotion in the market, as Chinese solar companies’ share price soared as investors’ rush to snatch up solar stocks, followed by confusion over the terms of the subsidies, disenchantment at the likelihood of eligibility restrictions, and finally malaise as […]

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