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Solarpunk is happening in Africa
341–350 of 616 posts
Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa
#342> 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…
Yeah, MPESA was and is still an incredible product. A real lightning-in-a-bottle moment. Even if they've struggled to replicate that success in other geos, the original vision and execution back in the 200x's is a textbook case that bears study.
Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa
#343Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here in the US, the thirteenth amendment seems to think that a little slavery is cool. As I understand it, much of the rest of the world has similar views, but I'm sure this varies a bit from country to country. It's just that in the 21st century, we prefer to use some less-upsetting euphemism to refer to the practice domestically.
> Here in the US, the thirteenth amendment seems to think that a little slavery is cool. For anyone not familiar with the US Constitution, the 13th Amendment forbids slavery and involuntary servitude "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." Without that "except as a punishment for [a] crime" clause, being sentenced to N hours of community service would be forbidden by the C…
The conditions in the 'Angola' prison in Louisiana are a lot closer to slavery than community service.
Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa
#344The 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…
> in the US you just need to bribe landowners and hold-outs
If you really believe that then you need to read up on how the political system is financed. Members of congress spend a majority of their day calling "donors". That's not mom and dad, it's some corps (or rich individuals) who want to get sth done in return. And magically it gets done if the donations keep flowing. The only thing missing for "bribe" is to actually use the word.
Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa
#345[deleted]
Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa
#346Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a permit. And the permit basically says I don't have to get it inspected, show building plans, or do anything but tip my hat to the government. Unless I add solar.
I feel very optimistic about battery storage for this reason. I would love nothing more than be able to run on battery for a week or so so I can give a middle finger to the utility and just rip out the grid connection. No more solar inverter or power limit permits needed.
You probably still want an inverter to get AC for your household. I’m also still waiting for the house size batteries to come down in price before pulling the trigger apart from a small 200W setup for fun
Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa
#347Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa
#348Buried lede (in that none of the comments mention this): wireless micro-financing without transaction fees works for 10 African countries and is enabling a rural energy revolution. (though M-PESA isn't without controversy, and clearly it could benefit from competition)
Meanwhile, developed nations have millions of people who pay up to 500% interest on payday loans, 29% interest on credit cards, and can't get bank accounts. Small businesses can't grow quickly due to (among other things) high transaction fees cutting into already-meager profits. We only hear news about big business and products and services for people with money. We forget that if we want our economy to grow, and adopt things like increased personal/residential solar power, we need to unburden the poorest, grow their own wealth, and infuse that back into the economy.
Perhaps we should stop obsessing so much over AI, and obsess a little more over making it less expensive and difficult to be poor. Seems to be working in Kenya.
Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa
#349Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe Parent is talking about trust in the ability to deliver on promises, not in handling of IP.
Oh I agree. But I'd say trust is the wrong word They're reliable, but would you really trust them? I think there's a bit of nuance there to differentiate the 2 though. Maybe I'm jaded from working with overseas factories though in ways others wouldn't be.
Are you saying you don’t reverse engineer your competitors, and friends, products?
Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa
#350What do they do during the night? Do they use batteries to store the energy?