Ghana is importing electricity to ensure everyone can watch the World Cup

Today in "Other countries care way more about soccer than Americans do": Ghana is boosting electricity production and buying more juice to stave off blackouts during the nation's World Cup games.

Ghana is running its own power plants at full steam, and then importing an extra 50 megawatts of electricity from neighboring Ivory Coast to meet increased demand. The large Volta Aluminum company will curtail its energy consumption during games to ease the strain on the nation's energy grid, too.

It's a bit of a stretch to say Ghana is rationing power solely for the games. Ghana has for several years been faced with energy shortfalls, and it already planned to ration energy this year while making improvements to its plants and infrastructure. Yet the contingency plan is nonetheless indicative of the World Cup's importance around the globe.

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