Africa will remain poor unless it uses more energy

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. The plan is that solar plants and wind turbines will provide power to split water into oxygen and to make ammonia, an important industrial chemical. James Mnyupe, an adviser to Namibia’s president, struck a deal last year with Namibia’s preferred developer, Hyphen, a German-led consortium. It could lead to an investment of $9.4bn—a huge boost for a country with a of about $12bn.