Energy Archive

The third ASEAN-Russia summit, held in the Russian city of Sochi, concluded on May 20. In a beehive of diplomatic activity, Russian President Vladimir Putin held bilateral meetings with the leader of every member-state of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) over two days. The conclave has been heralded for setting in motion a roadmap to accelerate economic and security cooperation between the states of Southeast Asia and Russia—a new level of interaction that will allow Moscow to move beyond its stalled relationships with the United States and Europe to take advantage of new opportunities in Asia. Even before […]

Venezuela’s unraveling is gathering speed. The country is now on course for an extended period of uncertainty, with a probably momentous and possibly dangerous outcome lying in wait. This does not come as a surprise. A few months ago, I described Venezuela’s shambolic start to what promised to be a dramatic year. That was not a risky prediction. Anyone watching the country’s trajectory could see disaster coming. The question now is, How will this end? A number of possible scenarios come to mind, some of them very troubling. The events of the past few days mark a sharp escalation in […]

The past year has been a tumultuous one for South America. The collapse in commodities prices, a series of corruption scandals and changing ideological tides have all combined to upend a lengthy period of prosperity and stability. In particular, the leftist ideologies that had been ascendant over the past decade and a half seem to be losing steam. The following articles are free for nonsubscribers until May 19. Brazil’s Crisis of Confidence Amid Impeachment Saga, Will 2016 Be Another Lost Year for Brazil? Writing in January, João Augusto de Castro Neves argued that while impeachment was unlikely in the short […]

Earlier this year, the U.S. Congress passed the Electrify Africa Act, ensuring the continuation of U.S. President Barack Obama’s “Power Africa” initiative, which aims to expand power-generation capabilities across the continent. In an email interview, Ilmi Granoff, a senior research associate at the Overseas Development Institute, discussed the state of Power Africa and power generation in Africa. WPR: Broadly speaking, what are the current power-generation capabilities of sub-Saharan Africa, and where are the biggest shortfalls? Ilmi Granoff: The entire installed capacity of sub-Saharan Africa is about 76 gigawatts (GW). The shortfalls are enormous: South Africa has 48 of those 76 […]