Power: HVDC to illuminate darkest Africa: By 1975, electric energy will be produced in northwest Mozambique in one of the largest hydroelectric systems under construction

Over the course of many years, the “dark continent” has been steadily brightened by large-scale power-development schemes that are thrusting Africa into the forefront of contemporary technological progress. Across a sparsely populated land mass where the often inhospitable “back of beyond” resists any form of technological intervention, high-voltage dc (HVDC) transmission from points of power generation to load centers — because of relatively low transmission losses over long distances — becomes a logical choice.