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Solarpunk is happening in Africa

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Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#21

Post by Avicebron »

AtlasBarfed wrote: post #13
p1necone wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is small businesses selling solar panels to people socialism?

It's part of modern double speak Capitalism is really centralized monopolistic oligarchical control in modern media parlance. Distributed empowering democratic grassroots level capitalistic allocation of resources that don't provide centralized control and administration is "socialism".

I think this is really insightful definition, username aside, I think forcing the conversation to include "oligarchical control" (the part people usually have issue with) prevents the lazy "but muh free market!" arguments when discussing our modern economic system

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#22

Post by alephnerd »

As I keep saying ad infinitum, Africa is not a single unitary region.

Different countries in Africa have better grids than others, and different countries in Africa have stronger penetration of digital banking and DBT than others.

A country seeing a boom in domestic solar because of government subsidies and policies like Nigeria [0] is different from a country seeing a domestic solar boom because of a collapsing electric grid and regulatory failure like South Africa [1] or Pakistan [2] (not Africa but the same point holds).

At best this is an AI generated article, at worst this is someone who is truly misinformed and thinks about Africa this reductively.

[0] - https://nep.rea.gov.ng/solar-hybrid-mini-grid-for-economic-d...

[1] - https://globalpi.org/research/south-africas-solar-boom/

[2] - https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/pakistans-solar-revo...

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#24

Post by w10-1 »

TLDR: dirty fuel is being displaced by clean electricity for 500M+ Africans beyond the grid via combination of cheap solar panels + batteries, microfinancing, electronic payments, and a carbon-credit kicker. Two main players captured most consumers and farmers via hard-to-reproduce integration. TAM should increase 3X with China's continued oversupply and govt-backed financing. Case studies available for key points.

Inspiring. My only critique would be that the excited tone (and exclusivity) ends up detracting from the achievement and opportunity.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#25

Post by epistasis »

interstice wrote: post #12

Every time I see $/watt charts like this I just want a single link to buy something at that price. 20c/watt? Yes please, _where_.

These prices are outside of the US, because the US has massive tariffs. But prices like $0.28/W are quite achievable, here's a random link:

https://signaturesolar.com/waaree-405w-pallet-mono-31-panels...

The global average price for solar panels is $0.09/W in 2025. I think India, which also has tariffs to stimulate local factories, is around $0.18/W.

Though at these prices you're likely going to be paying nearly as much for mounting materials as you are for the panels.

Edit: Also, used solar panels are becoming a pretty thriving market. Definitely worth checking those out, especially for isolated projects like a solar car port or something.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#26

Post by asadm »

I also saw this on my recent visit to Pakistan, the country has flipped to solar instead of grid for most middle-class homes. Farmers and small industries also have started using solar a lot! Truly transformational (and cheap) thanks to China.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#27

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

> M-PESA, a mobile money platform that let people transfer cash via SMS.

This a thing that needs to be more widely known. If you saying, as people here sometimes do, "oh but my new tech could help people move money in poor parts of the world" (not mentioning any specific tech right now) and you're not familiar with M-PESA, then you're just out of your depth and talking foolishly. The real world has already moved past you.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#28

Post by tetris11 »

TrainedMonkey wrote: post #16

I think this is really cool, but math seems off: > A company (Sun King, SunCulture) installs a solar system in your home > * You pay ~$100 down > * Then $40-65/month over 24-30 months But also: > The magic is this: You’re not buying a $1,200 solar system. You’re replacing $3-5/week kerosene spending with a $0.21/day solar subscription (so with $1.5 per week half the price of kerosene) $1.5 week is $6 a month, not $60…

Isn't $6 a month the cost of the subscription, but the $40-56 a month the cost of the installation?

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#29

Post by griffzhowl »

baq wrote: post #5
r14c wrote: post #2

solarpunk is just socialism with afrofuturist aesthetics. happy for them!

Funny. I read the article and couldn’t shake the feeling that this is exactly how capitalism lifts whole countries out of poverty.

It's not capitalism, it's technology. That can often go together with capitalism, but Russia from 1917-60 and China from 1960-2025, say, are big counter-examples. As are the many poor countries with capitalist economies. Growth in electrification, transport infrastructure, manufacturing and mechanized agriculture will grow any economy, capitalist or socialist

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#30

Post by shadowgovt »

Several African countries have also been fascinating for the growth of cellular telephone.

Grids require an amount of cohesion that isn't always on-hand in that part of the world (a fancy way of saying "When they built the grid in Europe, they could mostly put copper on telephone poles and assume nobody would just show up and steal it later"). But a cellular node can be built to be self-contained and protected by a single property owner with a shotgun.

It became a much faster and cheaper rollout solution and the demand created a market to justify the cost of improving and perfecting the technology.

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