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Solar power supply to Kenia


Johandup

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This enlightening article was written by an influential cadre.

https://www.news24.com/Columnists/Mamphela_Ramphele/mamphela-ramphele-needs-of-the-majority-must-be-top-priority-20190917

Articles like this makes me suspicious  as it can be the first step in softening up the gullible voters.

And I am still waiting for the Zondo commission investigation into the Eskom contracts with the independent solar power suppliers. Rumours has it that these has a very high rate per kWhr.

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I wouldn't call her an "influential cadre", if by that term you mean member or lackey of the ANC. Her history stems from the old BCM, and she seems to have had little formal involvement with the ANC and even courted the DA.

That doesn't mean the column isn't worth reading.

But we need to be wary of costs. Usually there is some sort of subsidy required to make these clean power solutions work.

There was an interesting article on this subject on the DM recently. I will say about the author that I don't always agree with his extrapolations, but accept his data. And in this case the data tells us that if you want clean energy, then the best sources are nuclear and hydro.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2019-08-13-mantashe-is-right-south-africa-must-build-more-nuclear-energy/

 

It may also be worth looking at the British model as well. There they have something like the model proposed for SA where one company runs the grid and there are many suppliers. And the consumer can decide which supplier they want to deal with and suppliers compete for business. This means that, for example, you can elect to use a provider that uses only renewable sources, if that's what you believe is the right thing to do.

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I am wary of people who argue that solar is the alpha and omega for the future. They bargain on people being gullible and not informed. 

Solar MUST have a backup of sorts for when the sun is not delivering enough. And that means MANY hours per day per YEAR. 

Many countries are currently investing in GW solar panel installations. South Africa will never feature due to our corrupt politicians. 

Nuclear has been pushed out by countries with the people and knowhow to run them. That excludes our home country as definitely don't have such people. Unless we want the Russians to run it - FOREVER. Putin's dream of course. 

Hydro is dependant on weather related conditions. Just look a little north for countries placing too much faith in the Kariba. And we are a water scarce country. I don't really know whether our big dams have all hydro power generators installed in them. If not, can we reverse engineer such installations? One can but dream. 

So yes, we need a coal replacement for power. But that would be a future generation solution. I hope it will work out for the better for the world. 

Edited by Johandup
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25 minutes ago, Johandup said:

solar is the alpha and omega for the future

I think we all know the Alpha and Omega for energy generation is nuclear fusion, and many private companies are now also joining the fusion race, some are claiming that they will be energy positive by 2030 (which sounds a little too ambitions to me) but hey, whoever cracks fusion first will undoubtedly be made very rich and transform the energy landscape forever. 

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32 minutes ago, Johandup said:

So yes, we need a coal replacement for power.

Whilst we wait for fusion, I like the idea of using ocean waves and currents with wind.

When the sea is active, the wind is howling, use all the surplus power to melt all the salt you can for power storage - like in weeks of storage.
The salt obviously comes from the desalination plants that is the base current of the system.
The surplus water generated are pumped into new dams built closer to the site to be used for drinking / farming and hydro schemes, some more power storage.

Edited by Guest
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4 minutes ago, Fuenkli said:

another option is to generate hydrogen using surplus renewable energy. I think that many energy users (like airplanes, heating houses, Rockets etc.) will never be able to operate on battery power.

You already get small electric planes :)

https://www.pipistrel-aircraft.com/aircraft/electric-flight/alpha-electro/

But its true, you are not going to fly a 777 size jet on 270Wh/kg

There are many ways to store excess renewables, thermal energy storage is my current favorite, but you could make hydrogen, compressed air, pull heavy weights up a mountain, whatever tickles your fancy.

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4 minutes ago, Fuenkli said:

... generate hydrogen using surplus renewable energy ...

Ja, I can give you power from the ocean to do that. 

So now we have clean water pumped and stored in dams for drinking / farming.
Clean water is also pumped to rivers / dams for stored hydro power.
We have salt from the desalination process which is then melted for additional storage.
Then we have hydrogen as another power source due to the surplus power.
Pull heavy weights up like say Table Mountain ... compressed air in massive tanks.

Generate as much power as one can as cheaply as possible from the ocean and then find ways to use that surplus power in other words.

Each town around the SA's coast can have plants.

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Actually I read an article on compressed air. Apparently it is quite efficient as well, and not such a complex technology. If I filled up my little compressor in the day, I could run an engine for a few minutes on the compressed air at night. I have seen large diesel engines being started on compressed air before swapping over to fuel.

DIY compressed air generator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C1kLtImib4

Edited by DeepBass9
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