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For climate and livelihoods, Africa bets big on solar mini-grids

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Re: For climate and livelihoods, Africa bets big on solar mini-grids

#31
To get a good insight into the problems faced by nations in West Africa and Southwest Africa as they try to implement electricity-based technologies to their populations, I highly recommend watching Season 7 of Itchy Boots on YouTube [0].

Her experiences as she "adventure rides" through this region tacitly documents the true nature of "life as it is lived" by the millions and millions of human beings residing there.

It is stunning to consider and is an Africa I never knew existed.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8M9dV_BySaXNvQ_V1q4U...

Re: For climate and livelihoods, Africa bets big on solar mini-grids

#32

Small pet peeve - saying "Africa" is too broad a statement for a continent with 54 countries, and does a disservice to the actual government institutions working on development. They should explicitly call out Nigeria instead of treating it as "Africa". Nigeria is unique in how they actually have a formal industrial strategy for mini-grids [0] thanks to World Bank support [1] It's a uniquely Nigerian program and Nige…

That was my first thought.

Let's say you are an editor: You can be accurate and write 'Nigeria' in the headline, but you realize that most people have no idea where or what Nigeria is - that's a bad thing, but true. If you write 'Africa', then many more people will learn about Nigeria.

I don't have a good answer. Maybe they should squeeze both into the headline: 'For African climate and livelihoods, Nigeria bets big ...'

Re: For climate and livelihoods, Africa bets big on solar mini-grids

#33
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to have conveniently forgotten about centuries of colonialism, resource exploitation and state-sponsored regime changes, which still plague Africa today.

How would you differentiate Africa from East Asia in those regards?

Let's look at the successful economies of East Asia:

Japan was a first world country, an economic success before WWII, and then had the US occupation after the war to rebuild it economically and politically as a hedge against future Japanese threats and against Russia and China.

South Korea never suffered Western colonialism (?) but did suffer under Japan. After that and the Korean War, iirc it was one of the poorest places on Earth. Now they are among the wealthiest and most free, maybe the greatest such accomplishment ever. They also benefitted from direct US support, as a counter-balance to the neighboring communist states.

Taiwan has direct US support to contain the communist regime in mainland China, first as a right-wing authoritarian dictatorship and then as a democracy.

China suffered 50-150 years of Western colonialsm, depending on how you measure it (the UK still controlled Hong Kong until the late 1990s). They were very poor into the 1990s. Then, opening their economy to investment (a project begun in the late 1970s), and with major manufacturing economies as neighbors (Japan, Taiwan, S Korea, etc.), they became the center of global manufacturing and trade and reaped the financial benefits.

By comparison, how will African countries attract investment? They are geopolitically located in a place that matters, and are not the global center of population nor many of the other Chinese advantages such as a massive single market that complied with Western requirements, proximity to wealthy neighbors such as Japan, Taiwan, etc.

Re: For climate and livelihoods, Africa bets big on solar mini-grids

#34
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would infrastructure get torn down once it’s in place?

Copper wire has high resale value. So do solar panels. Copper theft is a problem worldwide, including the US.

I was at my local Home Depot last weekend and the rep told me that just a few weeks prior, a couple people stole a couple rolls of electrical wire (romex) and the value was over $4,000 because of the cost of the copper in it.

I was buying a 15ft strand and it was $18.

Re: For climate and livelihoods, Africa bets big on solar mini-grids

#35

Mini-grids may be the part the EU is missing. Selling your surplus ev power to grid is a huge waste, charging your neighbours car is a better use.

> Selling your surplus ev power to grid is a huge waste, charging your neighbours car is a better use.

Electricity is fungible (ignoring transmission losses), so what's the difference?

Re: For climate and livelihoods, Africa bets big on solar mini-grids

#36
post #26

It's been obvious for a long time this was going to be the development path for Africa. Just as they leapfrogged land line telephones for cellular. Africa was never going to build out massive coal and natural gas based electrical grids with transmission lines substations and utility poles bringing electricity to every home. The capital isn't there and the cost of renewables keeps falling.

You are wrong, the capital IS there, Africa is rich, it's just the capitsl is leaving for US, Europe, and Asia, instead of staying in Africa because of colonial history.

Why does africans send their capital to US, Europe and Asia?

Re: For climate and livelihoods, Africa bets big on solar mini-grids

#37

Mini-grids may be the part the EU is missing. Selling your surplus ev power to grid is a huge waste, charging your neighbours car is a better use.

> Selling your surplus ev power to grid is a huge waste, charging your neighbours car is a better use. Electricity is fungible (ignoring transmission losses), so what's the difference?

taxes and fees. But yea it would not be allowed on a real scale without new taxes and fees and then that benefit is removed.

Re: For climate and livelihoods, Africa bets big on solar mini-grids

#38

Mini-grids may be the part the EU is missing. Selling your surplus ev power to grid is a huge waste, charging your neighbours car is a better use.

> Selling your surplus ev power to grid is a huge waste, charging your neighbours car is a better use. Electricity is fungible (ignoring transmission losses), so what's the difference?

I think transmission losses are exactly the point? Locally, the losses are practically zero, the further you need to push it, the more significant various losses become. If you could line up someone's production to someone else nearby who needs to consume, as a whole the system would incur considerably less losses, no?

Re: For climate and livelihoods, Africa bets big on solar mini-grids

#39

Mini-grids may be the part the EU is missing. Selling your surplus ev power to grid is a huge waste, charging your neighbours car is a better use.

instead of innovation or investment the only thing the EU does is legislation and policy. it's really sad. :(

Re: For climate and livelihoods, Africa bets big on solar mini-grids

#40
post #34
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Copper wire has high resale value. So do solar panels. Copper theft is a problem worldwide, including the US.

I was at my local Home Depot last weekend and the rep told me that just a few weeks prior, a couple people stole a couple rolls of electrical wire (romex) and the value was over $4,000 because of the cost of the copper in it. I was buying a 15ft strand and it was $18.

Copper as a commodity is currently worth under $5/pound: https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/copper

It's probably worth even less if you have to resell wire to recycling businesses of the "no questions about where you got it" variety. Are these wire rolls large enough to contain a thousand pounds of copper?

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