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Solar Power Could Drive African EV Boom Sooner Than Expected
A new study led by ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), published in Nature Energy, challenges the long-held assumption that combustion engines will dominate the continent until at least the mid-century.
- Categories
- Energy, Transportation
- Region
- Global
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WattWallet Expands Digital Access to Prepaid Electricity in South Africa
The South African startup allows consumers to buy prepaid electricity tokens in a few clicks.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Cheap Solar Is Transforming Lives and Economies Across Africa
Chinese panels are now so affordable that businesses and families are snapping them up, slashing their bills and challenging utilities.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2025: Announcing the Winners of Our Annual Contest
We've counted the votes in NextBillion’s “Most Influential Articles of the Year” contest, an annual tradition since 2012. The three winners are listed in this article. Congratulations to these guest writers, and to the other contestants in the contest, whose insights have clearly resonated with our readers this past year. And thank you to everyone who voted — and everyone who read and wrote for NextBillion in 2025. Best wishes for the new year!
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- Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology, Telecommunications
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Announcing NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2025: Vote for Your Favorites by Jan. 4
NextBillion’s “Most Influential Articles of the Year” contest has been an annual tradition since 2012. As we do each December, we’ve highlighted 12 of our most-read articles from the past year: You can find links to them in this article, or on the homepage below. We invite you to read them and vote for the ones that influenced your thinking the most. You can vote up to once per hour between today (Dec. 19) and 11:59 pm EST on Jan. 4. We thank you for your support and engagement over these past 20 years, and we wish you a happy and prosperous 2026.
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- Energy, Environment, Finance, Investing, Technology, Telecommunications, Transportation
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African Development Bank Secures $11 Billion in Historic Fund
The African Development Bank’s concessional financing arm mobilised a record $11 billion from 43 Partners in its 17th (ADF-17), an amount the multilateral lender said signals confidence in the continent’s development prospects.
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- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Analysis: China Wants Electric Cars to Feed Power Back to the Grid
The world’s largest EV fleet could become a giant battery network if economic and technical hurdles are overcome.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology, Transportation
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Financing Off-Grid Solar: A Pioneering Provider in Honduras Shows the Impact of Diversified Funding
Honduras is one of the poorest countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and many of its most remote regions remain unserved by the electricity grid. Richenda Van Leeuwen at Hummingbird Green Solutions and Richard Stuebi and Jesse Colman at Boston University explore how Soluz Honduras is bringing freezers and other solar products to these markets by leveraging a variety of different financing models — an approach that shows how diversified funding can enable businesses to serve even the hardest-to-reach areas and the poorest of customers.
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