"The numbers are not going to impress anyone," says Francois d'Adesky, UNIDO's interim representative in South Africa. But the project may be extended to all of KwaZulu–Natal, then all of South Africa, if it proves successful here, because it might then garner World Bank funding. But there is not enough money currently to extend the program to the hundreds of millions more in the rest of Africa and Asia who also lack access to electricity and such lighting—a problem the U.N. declaration of a push for sustainable energy for all aims to solve.
At the same time, there is the problem of cleaning existing electricity sources for those who do enjoy a grid connection. Although Durban's metropolitan electric utility has a wind turbine spinning briskly in the sea breeze blowing over its roof, grid power in South Africa means coal power (as does much of the diesel fuel for trucks and jet fuel for planes)—the dirtiest fossil fuel—and all too often used for things like electrified security fences around homes. Such power is not precluded as part of the new U.N. initiative, although the goal is to ensure that such energy is used for economic development and that environmental consequences, including climate change, "can be managed as best we can," Orr says. "We're not trying to create utopia in 20 years. We will work with the existing [energy] mix and try to move it in a positive direction."
Zuma's rally provides an example: a tall smiling puppet woman with a witch's shoes, striped stockings and a red-brimmed hat with smoke coming out from the top known as Mrs. Coal calls on her equally tall friend—a floppy, green, walking wind-turbine puppet known as Mr. Wind—for help. And for those not lucky enough to be connected to the grid that Mrs. Coal and Mr. Wind can combine to power, the LEDs and the photovoltaic panels that turn sunlight into electricity to power them keep getting cheaper.
Health and education
There is another use for solar power of course—heat. Hence the 19 clinics and two schools getting solar hot water heaters courtesy of UNIDO in iLembe District. The most basic reason to want modern energy services for all—as the U.N. proclaims—is human health.
More than a million children in Africa and Asia die from diarrheal diseases each year, according to the World Health Organization, including hundreds even in relatively prosperous South Africa. The problem is a lack of hygiene.
Something as simple as hot water allows much better hygiene as well as offering hot meals for the poorest students, notes UNIDO's Nokwazi Moyo. "Soft hands, soft hands," the beaming children of Aldinville Senior Primary School in the iLembe District shout out as I tour the grounds. My hands are clean, too, thanks to access to soap and hot water, and that's something the sun can now provide to these children as well, cutting the risk of spreading infection for them and for workers at the 19 local health clinics similarly outfitted. "Kids now have chance to wash hands before lunch, which is hygienic," says Mikhail Evstafyev, a UNIDO spokesman. "It's the same for the clinic."
The generic hot water heaters the project uses are assembled in South Africa from parts made in China, according to Moyo, but so far have not seen wide uptake in the sunny country. Wealthier South Africans' homes are more likely to sport satellite dishes than photovoltaic panels or solar hot water heaters, although the government has established incentives as part of its new renewable energy initiatives.
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14 Comments
Add CommentNuclear power is a far cheaper, cleaner energy source for urban Africa than solar electricity or wind especially when enormous transmission and storage/backup costs are considered. Solar hot water/heat great idea.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSolar is an excellent alternative for backwood power gen until nuclear ammonia fuel cells can replace it.
In the isolated and small rural villages of Africa a smaller more personal touch should be taken. There's a young man right now in these villages obtaining used photovoltaic cells at a cost affective price and building solar panels by hand. He's also training others in these villages to make their own PV panels. Villages like these have very little infrastructure if any. Just supplying enough electricity to power a pump for the village water well and a few light bulbs at night will go a long way in helping these villages develop in the short term.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes. Solar Water Heaters,Solar Cookers,Solar Driers,Solar Disinfection of Water,Solar LED lights ... all can enrich the life in African Region.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India
E-mail: anumakonda.jagadeesh@gmail.com
Coupled with cell towers and cheap laptops used for education, yes. They need to be taught how to fish - not be given a fish.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUnlike a solar electric collector, a solar hot water heater can be built inexpensively. It should even be possible to use some of that hot water to power a refrigerator such as is used in some campers. Thus a family could have hot water and refrigeration at a relatively low cost without having electricity. Then you would build the solar stove.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI know that one part of the camper refrigerator must have heat applied to it all the time for it to work. I don't know how to do that with the passive solar water heater on the roof. A pump would constantly bathe a point in the refrigerator with hot warted. Something else would be needed. Otherwise, it should be possible to provide a family with hot water, cooked food, and refrigeration for very little money.
Absolutely agree. The energy issues across Africa are so varied that multiple solutions are needed. Extending the grid & Mini-Grids (ideally renewables powered) are vital - as are smaller solar solutions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPico Solar lights/lanterns (5 watts or less) can also have an immediate impact by replacing candles and kerosene, powering radios and charging mobile phones in off grid households (110 million off grid households in Africa).
The market can meet much of the demand... but governments can always do more stimulate it and improve the operating environment for the renewables industry.
John Keane, Head of Programmes, SolarAid
johnkeane1.wordpress.com
Pyrolyse wood and you've got a clean energy source. See International Biochar Initiative.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMost of the functions you mention only need solar arrays, but LED lights, to be of practical use, also need batteries, which don't usually last as long. I hope supercapacitors will soon be a viable replacement.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt should be mentioned that solar (or any heat) disinfection can be accomplished much more efficiently that you might expect, using counter-current heating technology, recovering heat from outgoing water to heat incoming water. The trick is to have water flowing in opposite directions, for instance with copper tubing inside a larger pipe, and lots of insulation around the outside.
I'm thinking of a cheap parabolic reflector solar cooker that would come in pieces and be assembled on site. It wouldn't have to have perfect focus, only good enough that all reflected light hits the bottom of the pot or griddle. The outside of the parabola would be spherical and sit in a spherical depression in the ground, so that the angle could be adjusted with the position of the sun, while the pot, hanging from a chain on a central post, stays upright. At times near sunrise or sunset, it might need guy wires to keep it from falling over. When small areas of the reflector get damaged, fill it in with plaster if needed and glue on some aluminum foil. I think other details wouldn't be too hard to work out.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSolar disinfection can be much more efficient than you might expect, using counter-current heat transfer from outgoing to incoming water. The trick is to have maybe copper tubing inside a bigger (preferably long and straight) pipe, with incoming and outgoing water flowing in opposite directions, and lots of insulation around the outside.
Oops, I thought I had accidentally deleted the previous message.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRight, let's go nuclear in Africa where only two nations at most (South Africa and Botswana) probably has the level of bureaucratic development to follow through the process to its end and then the security to ensure the nuclear elements are not stolen and used for malevolent purposes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile hypothetically nuclear is the answer to all our energy needs, to even think of using it, one must start with a nation/state that is fully secure in every way.
The expense of building nuclear plants is probably equal to some African nations annual budget, and aside from PR China no nation or private entity would even consider doing so.
As for China it wouldn't even consider it unless it somehow vastly improved their ability to utilize African resources on the SHORT term (as in a couple of years down the road, not the decade it usually takes to finish a Nuke plant properly).
The article is about realistic and easy to implement solutions to problems individuals face that are widespread and collectively have a massive negative impact on societies there, as well as solutions that can start producing results as soon as it starts.
Nuclear meets none of those requirements.
What an ironic sort of thing to say. LOL Yes I know you're being metaphorical, but the reality of the situation is were anyone to attempt to teach them how to fish, they'd find fishing rights off of the African coast has been sold to the highest bidder, and the same goes for most of the mineral wealth.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes you do, you also cause massive deforestation in a region that is already suffering continent wide desertification due to over harvesting of wood in drier regions, and cutting the rainforest for lumber exports.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe point of the article is to come up with a solution that does NOT cause another problem that is even worse than the situation there already.
Also, at one time mangrove forests filled the African coasts. It might be possible to graft fruit trees onto mangrove roots or perhaps mangrove trunks. Red mangroves have glands in their trunks for getting rid of excess salt. Imagine branches from an orange tree grafted above that point.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA mangrove forest which went from a fish nursery to a denuded area worthless to both people and fish could again serve both.