LONDON: As summer temperatures inch above 45 C and the hum of backup generators fills the air, Iraq finds itself sliding toward its worst electricity crisis in years. Decades of mismanagement had already left the country’s power sector vulnerable. Now, the US-Israeli war with Iran has turned that chronic weakness into an emergency. In late May, Baghdad began buying electricity from Turkiye and its own semiautonomous Kurdistan region to help shore up supplies in several provinces.

With so much sunlight, Iraq is very well-positioned to use solar power to help fix its annual summer electricity crisis. So why is it that Iraq's government has only recently…

Despite abundant sunshine, Iraq has only recently embraced solar power as a solution to its recurring summer electricity shortages.