Iraq has suffered from a lack of electricity generation capacity following the US-led invasion of 2003 as well as the rise and fall of the Islamic State group (IS) over 2014-17. Successive governments have thus far failed to rehabilitate Iraq’s electricity sector, despite spending some 50B USD on it in the first 16 years after the invasion.

In the absence of robust regulatory frameworks and action plans, the country’s electricity sector is loaded with investment plans that can be described as ambitious at best and outlandish at worst. Among these plans is a previous renewable energy project that resurfaced last month...