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Solarpunk is happening in Africa

climatedrift.substack.com

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Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#131

Post by samdoesnothing »

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…

It's obviously AI generated. Was a bummer because I was interested in the premise.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#132

Post by glenstein »

epistasis wrote: post #9

The grid is HUGELY expensive, an absolutely massive cost for our electricity. And it would still be expensive in a well-regulated environment where you can quickly and easily get permission to build, without, say, voter ballot propositions illegally blocking a transmission line for years [1]. Here in the US we have a very very poorly regulated environment for adding to our grid, it moves slower than molasses and ther…

>voter ballot propositions illegally blocking a transmission line for years [1]

This is a disastrous misrepresentation of a complex case with lots of moving pieces. At no point in the history of the construction of that specific power line was there a challenge to legality of citizen initiative until after the vote. Meanwhile, as they were behind in the polls, the company rushed to build as much of it as they could knowing that the initiative was coming, so when they failed at the ballot box, they could claim a legally recognized "vested interest".

Absent the vested interest claim they would have been legally bound by the results of the ballot initiative, and the vested interest was not established until after the ballot had been voted on.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#133

Post by bluGill »

losvedir wrote: post #125

This has got to be ChatGPT, right? There's just a lot of... nonsensical phrasing and sentences? I love the story of it, but I can't take the writing. > This worked great if you were electrifying America in the 1930s, when labor was cheap, materials were subsidized, and the government could strong-arm right-of-way access. It works less great when you’re trying to reach a farmer four hours from the nearest paved road w…

My grandpa (long dead) remembers his dad paying $600 in the 1920s (1930s?) to get electric to the farm. That is the actual cost, not inflation adjusted. Most of the neighbors didn't because that was too much money in those days.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#135

Post by epistasis »

badpun wrote: post #89
noosphr wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It absolutely does not. But having electricity 13 days every two weeks is much better than not having it at all. This isn't about China building out their grid with an over capacity factor of 200% so they can keep everything running even if rain, sun and wind all fail for months on end. This is a developing county getting to the point they can charge mobile phones consistently.

Sounds good until you try to run a business. Having businesses randomly out of commission is not a way to bring country from developing to developed status.

Even if you have an under-provisioned solar+storage solution and don't want to splurge for a generator, even on cloudy days you still get power, just less.

Generally businesses are really great at balancing costs, and for highly-cost-constrained businesses if you give them 95% uptime at half the cost, the equation becomes clear. And in Africa, if the option is 95% uptime or 0% uptime, the choice is even clearer.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#138

Post by baq »

r14c wrote: post #45
baq wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What's capitalism to you?

an economic system which rewards winners and tears itself apart in a winner-takes-all tragic finale without an impartial regulator/judge.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#139

Post by [deleted] »

losvedir wrote: post #125

This has got to be ChatGPT, right? There's just a lot of... nonsensical phrasing and sentences? I love the story of it, but I can't take the writing. > This worked great if you were electrifying America in the 1930s, when labor was cheap, materials were subsidized, and the government could strong-arm right-of-way access. It works less great when you’re trying to reach a farmer four hours from the nearest paved road w…

[deleted]

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#140

Post by kazinator »

mothballed wrote: post #60
jmole wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I built my house without any inspection or licensing and connected to the electric grid" Where exactly do you live? I'm not saying you're lying, but this smells like a tall tale. You can easily buy solar panels and batteries, and if no government inspectors are coming by anyway, then it doesn't matter. Maybe what you're saying is, "my power company wouldn't let me use grid-tied solar without it being permitted." ?

Rural AZ >"my power company wouldn't let me use grid-tied solar without it being permitted." ? Nah they didn't give a shit what I connected it to. I literally stubbed a 200 amp service entrance on vacant land then just went wild connecting it to whatever I like. I shot the shit with their engineer when they ran secondary off the power pole and that was it, I've never seen them again. > no government inspectors are co…

Don't people have guns in AZ, especially rural?

I wouldn't want to go to someone's home to hassle them about their DIY solar installation.

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