BAGHDAD — In a city with constant electricity shortages but no lack of sunshine, the new buzz is solar energy.
Teams of engineers have appeared along major Baghdad roadways, bolting panels and bulbs to rows of towering steel poles to make solar-powered streetlights.
The workers who turned up recently in the upscale Karada district approached the task with near-religious fervor.
"We are lighting up the city with solar power," Sajad Hussein declared when queried by curious residents. "People say it is a gift from God."
Surging oil prices have fueled interest in solar power and other renewable energy sources in California and across the United States, where pressure also is building to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to fend off global warming.
But Iraq's decision to embrace clean energy has little to do with cost cutting or the environment: The country's policymakers want to improve security, and the national grid doesn't supply enough electricity to illuminate city streets.
For Iraqis, the lack of reliable power has been one of the biggest frustrations of the war. The U.S. government has committed $4.91 billion to repairing the ravaged electricity infrastructure and bringing new generating units online. But most Iraqis can count on just a few hours of power a day.
Faced with another long, hot summer without sufficient electricity, an Iraqi journalist confronted a U.S. general at a news conference in spring and demanded to know why the military wasn't harnessing the sun's rays for the national grid.
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Dorko, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq, said the cost was prohibitive.
"A rough standard worldwide is it costs approximately $1 million to create a power plant to generate one megawatt of power," he said. "The cost per one megawatt for solar power is several times that, maybe $6 million or $7 million per megawatt."
But U.S. and Iraqi officials agree that solar energy can be useful on a more limited scale, such as powering a street lamp without having to rely on the dysfunctional electricity system.
Iraq's electricity grid was already in a state of disrepair after years of sanctions when U.S.-led forces invaded in March 2003. The U.S. efforts have added about 2,200 megawatts of daily generating capacity, which now stands at about 5,500 megawatts.
