All Articles

Shoza and a dozen women in her drivers' club work from Kagera Centre in Kagera, which is one of Tanzania's poorest rural administrative regions. They drive around, operating Chinese-made but locally improvised EV three-wheelers that transport everything from packets of noodles to pregnant mothers and medicines across rural Tanzania. 

Battery innovation centers and accelerators offer a powerful blueprint for America to build leadership in the evolving global energy market. By blending research, manufacturing, and workforce development under one roof, they help transform bright ideas into scalable, sustainable solutions. If the nation continues to invest in these hubs — and ensures their lessons spread nationwide — the U.S. can build a battery ecosystem that is not only competitive but resilient.

From 2018 to 2023, South Africa endured a debilitating energy crisis as rolling blackouts paralysed the nation. This catastrophe stemmed from the premature decommissioning of coal plants without adequate replacement capacity. While South Africa struggled, China and India—two of the world's top coal consumers—expanded their coal infrastructure with less scrutiny, revealing a global inequity in climate policy.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of long-duration energy storage in the transition to a green economy, and both countries and industries would be well served by investing in these technologies.