Solarpunk is happening in Africa • Hacker News Board

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#501

Post by KeplerBoy » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 2:25 PM UTC

Gibbon1 wrote: post #420

kaon_2 wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thought provoking question! I am not an electrical engineer, but arguments I heard went along these lines: Almost all existing appliance markets are AC. Are we really going to be building a complete parallel appliance market? You wouldn't be able to sell a TV from the city in the country side and vice versa. I would be keen to hear what an electrical engineer on hackernews has to say! Interestingly, when I visited th…

I'm sort of an electrical engineer. Increasingly things don't run directly off 120/240V directly. Anything with a power supply could be designed to run of 48V DC nominal. My slight obsession is that really the world needs a low voltage standard. Things like lighting, low power appliances don't need 120/240V.

I'm slightly afraid of a world where USB-C PD is going to be that standard.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#502

Post by MrsPeaches » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 2:30 PM UTC

carlosjobim wrote: post #494

DanielHB wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brazilian person here, when I moved to Europe I was baffled I couldn't find shops that fixed electronics. Like I wanted to get my Android phone charging port replaced, I literally couldn't find a shop in my city willing to do the repair. I eventually went back to Brazil and had it fixed there and replaced the battery. Freaking phone lasted 8 years on my very clumsly hands, still works even. The fix cost me ~30 usd pl…

Somebody who has the skills to fix electronics will be working with fixing devices which are much more expensive and critical than cell phones. Industrial dishwasher breaks down? You need to get an electrician there ASAP. Cell phone breaks down? Throw it away and buy a new one. Brazil has very low salaries for skilled workers, so it makes sense that it's cheap to find somebody to fix your phone.

Note that mobile phone repair is the no. 1 service provided by repair shops in rural areas of many countries in Africa.

Like 50%+ of all repairs are mobile phone repairs

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#503

Post by tbrownaw » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 2:35 PM UTC

red-iron-pine wrote: post #492

jl6 wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My takeaway from observing “tech in developing world” projects is that the key gap is usually maintenance . That is, continuous small investment to prevent things from breaking in the first place. To be fair, that’s not exactly a solved problem in developed countries either! Sometimes development projects just throw solutions at rural communities then move onto their next project, leaving no legacy of training or con…

ain't just tech in the developing world. even in the Big IT Enterprise "support" is a byword that appears in all discussions. it's not enough to have, or to build, you gotta maintain, fix, replace, and eventually, remove. those discussions aren't fun or sexy, and everyone hates when you tank a blue-sky "it'll fix everything" discussion with the unpleasant realities of long-term care and feeding

The claim being that it's a gap there, a thing that gets overlooked in these projects. Whereas here it's a standard line item in whoever's budget.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#504

Post by modo_mario » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 2:41 PM UTC

rswail wrote: post #477

worik wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This I recal, the 1980s when Japanese manufacturing was dogy as. By 2000 it was the best The same thing is happening in China They are very good at everything they do, and getting better. Good.

Japan was making tin toys in the 60s, by the 80s, they were one of the largest car manufacturing nations and were buying out US factories. They boomed through the 80s/90s, but then lost their edge as China moved itself up the car manufacturing hierarchy, particularly in EVs. Same with competing with South Korea, but Japan are coasting a bit. China is at the start of that curve. They'll end up diversifying into the re…

>but then lost their edge as China moved itself up the car manufacturing hierarchy

Didn't they lose their edge earlier and because the US togheter with some european nations forced their arm after a trade war to limit their exports, enforce an unfavourable currency regime, etc?

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#505

Post by KeplerBoy » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 2:44 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #76

roywiggins wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The grid has a lot of 9s, but in a lot of places losing power for a day or two after a storm is not unusual at all. The grid per se being fine but your actual neighborhood being dark for a couple days is a pretty common experience in some places.

If you have ever lost power for just 12 hours in an entire year, you're already down to only two 9's: 99.863% I've never lived anywhere where the power didn't go down for at least a few (cumulative) days a year.

I live in central Europe and can't remember the last power outage not caused by a clumsy electrician. It must have been many years.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#506

Post by Tepix » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 2:45 PM UTC

The story is great, but is it just me who's tired of this style with ultra short sentences? It's getting to the point where it's distracting.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#507

Post by griffzhowl » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 2:45 PM UTC

Ray20 wrote: post #362

griffzhowl wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> It's not capitalism, it's technology. Seems like it's completely capitalism > but Russia from 1917-60 and China from 1960-2025, say, are big counter-examples. Russia and China are good examples of that. We have Khrushchev's memoirs about how, before the communist revolution, he, as a simple worker, lived better than workers live 40 years after the revolution. That is, the period from 1917 to 1960 in the USSR was on…

You make some reasonable points. But you're wrong to discount technology. Consider what Russia and China would have looked like if they hadn't electrified and mechanized.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#508

Post by mrWiz » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 2:50 PM UTC

myrmidon wrote: post #474

kaon_2 wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and no. You are right that indoor cooking (or outdoor on wood) is indeed one of the biggest causes of death worldwide. It dwarfs deaths by malaria. And where people don't die, it causes respiratory issues. I don't know the math but it is similar to smoking X cigarettes a day. - sidenote - You always learn that in centuries past, people didn't grow old. I never knew why but my current suspicion is that air polluti…

> Making heat from electricity is hard! Why? All you need is resistive wires, and minimal, dirt cheap electronics for regulation and shutdown/safety. You can find this in literally any $20 kettle or toaster, no need to supply Africans with induction cooktops for thousands of dollars...

You also need a buttload of electric power, which is the bottleneck.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#509

Post by MrsPeaches » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 2:54 PM UTC

zdc1 wrote: post #488

jl6 wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My takeaway from observing “tech in developing world” projects is that the key gap is usually maintenance . That is, continuous small investment to prevent things from breaking in the first place. To be fair, that’s not exactly a solved problem in developed countries either! Sometimes development projects just throw solutions at rural communities then move onto their next project, leaving no legacy of training or con…

I don't understand this space very well, but I wonder if an iFixit-esque solution would work there: publish DIY guides on identifying and fixing common faults, and have a network of sellers for replacement parts and tools.

Solar Aid who wrote this report have an app called SunnyMoney which has repair guides.

Don’t know about uptake:

https://solar-aid.org/news/repair-app/

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#510

Post by Tepix » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 2:56 PM UTC

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #280

I understand why this is happening in Africa first — lack of infrastructure makes the solution much more competitive. But as prices fall, it seems that this might be cost competitive in other areas as well. Selfishly, I’d love to see this in the US! Any big issues that would prevent adoption in the US?

Already in Germany people are putting solar on their roofs and batteries in their basements which makes them no longer need the grid 80+% of the time. With Sodium-Ion batteries this will go to 90+% at the same cost. It's happening pretty much everywhere.