Rolling Blackouts Cripple Ecuador's Economy

The government of Ecuador has mandated regular power cuts to help deal with the country’s energy crisis. The blackouts in November have been lasting from 4 am to 11 am and again from 3 pm to 10 pm, reducing access to power to just a few hours a day. While Ecuador’s reliance on fossil fuels is minimal compared to many other countries, the severe drought over the last year has hit the country’s hydropower sector hard. Hydropower has contributed around 70 percent of Ecuador’s electricity since 2017, but production has been…