Iraq Turns to Solar-Powered Lights to Boost Baghdad Security

Solar-powered streetlights are going up on major Baghdad thoroughfares, in an effort to improve security in a country where there is never enough electricity to go around. Iraq’s Electricity Ministry plans to install 5,000 solar-powered streetlights in Baghdad and hopes to install 18,000 more across the country, 1,000 in each of the 18 provinces, reports The Los Angeles Times. Though Iraq has the world’s third-largest oil reserves, it has few refineries and must import large quantities of diesel fuel. Its hydroelectric plants are suffering from drought, and what electricity there is often goes out as power lines are attacked.