• 1 Post
  • 24 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: July 28th, 2023

help-circle

  • Bullshit, South African here. Yes solar has helped, mostly the affluent who can afford to install their own private home/business solar power.

    But The huge problem what caused it was the ANC, which in May lost its majority in the elections for the first time since 1994.

    The state run power company, Eskom, had been run into the ground by the ANC due to corruption and incompetence. In 1997 a white paper showed there would not be enough power by 2007. The only two power stations they build, the two largest in the world if I am not incorrect has been the subject of the state capture commission due to corruption.

    In 2024 when it became clear they might lose majority, they exempted themselves from a government policy, which affects all medium to large businesses, which mandated they had to procure anything like maintenance or supplies through a BEE (black economic empowerment) partner. The idea is good but has been abused as rent seeking by the politically connected. So now they are exempt and the OEMs can directly work to fix and maintain the power stations.

    Funny due to the loadshedding, or rolling blackouts, we did not have enough power stations working, and as far as I know we were one, if not the only country reaching our Paris accords targets.

    But solar power is here to stay, heck even I want it on my own place, due to the cost of electricity becoming unaffordable, if you take a 10 year loan on a solar system, the cost savings will pay of the system itself. This has led to the affluent that can afford high tariffs prices from Eskom switch to Solar, saving them money, but they were used to subsidise electricity prices for the poor. So now the poor must pay more for electricity.

    The government did finally approve the independent power producers bill, finally allowing people other than government to produce electricity, and solar looks like a solid option, since we have lots of Sun and the falling prices. So government is loosing grip on the generation market, allowing the free market to make changes.

    But I will say it has been so nice to have had uninterrupted power when I come home, not needing to throw out my freezer food, having a hot shower, being able to prepare food on a hot stove under lights instead of a braai/BBQ.









  • Some cities this can work, but some cities have been engineered to keep certain people out, we call it a tax on the poor, they cannot afford to live in the city, so they must stay outside like 30km minimum, and travel everyday in and out, about 1.5h a shot, so 3 hours total, plus 9 hours work. And for a salary if the employer is generous and pays above minimum wage we are talking US$250/month. 20-30% of this goes to transport (thank the taxi mafia which government does nothing against). When the government did put cycle lanes in our economic hub of a city, the poor decried since it took their public transport lane and gave the rich a nice cycle line to avoid all the traffic since they live close to work. Also, rampant crime makes it so that if you are poor and cannot afford security, good luck keeping your bike that won’t be stolen for scrap metal or whatever for a Nyaope hit (heroin with HIV anti retrovirals that have hallucinogenic properties as a side effect)

    South Africa and referring to Johannesburg, CBD to be specific. Yeah and our piss poor unemployment of 33% officially, closer to 50% unofficially, makes sure that if you are dissatisfied you can be easily replaced. Entrenched oppression is fucking hectic.









  • Of course not, hydrogen is pathetic compared to batteries and similar stored mass energy solutions, but hydrogen does have its place, the future should be a mixture of different solutions because many methods have their advantages and disadvantages, but having a mixture means we can apply the best solution to the viable problems. Let’s take transportation, you have a truck that earns money by travelling. If we want to transition away from fossil fuel, hydrogen makes sense over batteries that takes an hour to multiple hours to charge and the weight of the batteries reduce the overall payload of the truck.