The last 2 weeks have been rather frustrating for most of us South Africans, as we have experienced power outages almost every single day, sometimes up to 6 hours a day. It is frustrastraing, but the reality is we need to live and work around it, for the next 5 – 7 years. I’m pretty sure that something will be done before then, otherwise, the economy is just going to crash, and we will fall in a deep dark (no pun intended) depression.
But we need to look for solutions. And it can be done. The next big problem we are facing as a world is Global warming. Why not use the one to try and fix the other. The sun is shining so much brighter, and we should be using it to create energy from solar panels, to create electricity.
Imagine, we install a couple of rugby field size “solar panel plants” in the Northern Cape. Maybe near Upington. The Northern Cape is one of South Africa’s poorer provinces with a high unemployment rate. Kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Create employment, while helping the economy grow in the region, AND we get more electricity. It can be done. 2 sites in the USA have recently been installed using this technology.
Stafford Masie, wrote a brilliant post on his blog about how we need to look for renewable energy sources, and has links to both these projects in this post.
Another source of electricity is in our homes. Every day. Even when Eskom does turn our power off. How ? Our Telephones. On every telephone line there is 12v of current running through, regradless if the elctricity has been turned off or not. We could use this source to power essential items around the house. Recharge batteries, be able to use our laptops…there are so many opportunities. This American site has a few different products which you can use this source of power .
The bottom line is that we need to find solutions to the problems. We are in a crisis, but we just need to put our heads together and solve it…
(OK, just as I was about to push the publish button, I get shed into darkness…Karma is a bitch :) )
6 replies on “Creating solutions to our power crisis”
I’ve been reading this book lately about a similar issue. It’s about the weather on the earth changing due to the moon being thrown out of whack, and so it messes with the tides and plate tectonics and there are power outages and tsunamis.
The main problem with solar panels, really, is that they are so expensive that for most people/countries they just aren’t practical.
Totally. We should use solar panels. But the problem is I have been looking for solar panels to set it up myself, like in Uk where you can walk to the shop and just buy a solar panel, its not like that here in SA.
That American site offering power from the telephone strikes me as being a hoax site.
So the power tripped before you could publish? Karma! I was writing my post about Load Shedding Schedule and was thinking to my self that the power was going to trip, hehe, fortunately it didn’t!
Marc.. I have no read Stafford’s article yet, so he might mention this – But, I am really interested in what the costs involved with setting up massive solar panels would be. If it’s not stupidly expensive, then I would favour this as a brilliant solution to increasing our electricity problems!
I heard the other day, not sure how safe the source was, that this might go on for the next 7 years? What is going to happen in 2010, then there will be, in my opinion, a massive increase in power usage?
Brilliant article Marc, thanks!
I love this rambling of yours! I’m sorry I can’t input much because I don’t know the exact situation, but yes power crisis needs to get fixed and one of the steps is to bond globally.
Thanks for all the comments. Great to see people are interested in this :)
The major problem is it seems that Solar Panels are really expensive. I heard the other day that a small one to power a traffic light is around R100,000 (About $15000) !!!
Perhaps there is a way around this, and cheaper solar panels need to be invented !!! (Anyone know any Chinese inventors ?? ;) )