Hydropower Goes Big

South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed a pretty impressive agreement: together they want to develop the biggest hydropower project in the world. It’ll be called the Grand Inga project (because it will be built on the Inga falls), and the president’s office in South Africa says it has an estimated capacity of 40,000 megawatts.

It’s not expected to be completed until 2025 and cost a lot of money, but offiicials in both countries believe investment in the future of clean energy is crucial. And it could completely change Africa’s energy sector. The Grand Inga project alone could reportedly bring energy to almost half of the population across Africa. And with more than 1 billion people living across the continent, that’s a pretty astonishing feat.