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green electricity in South Africa ? no time soon
Green electricity in South Africa is indeed an elusive environmentalist's dream at present. We must have some of the dirtiest electricity on earth. We are gifted with both dirty and clean sources of energy, safe and unsafe, in our low grade coal, with low energy yield, our rich deposits of plutonium ore, and being the fifth sunniest country on earth.
In the three articles on German energy we saw that the European union is far from united on the energy front, and if we compare a diversity of European nations, that our governmental ideology on energy in South Africa is most closely in harmony with the old fashioned energy school of Germany's eastern neighbours rather than with the giant of Technik itself. We see that in Germany the energy policy for environmental protection and emissions reduction is designed by the minister of the environment, and we see a government that can say a big "Nein !" to industry, but still is not all powerful, but that most voices except the actual nuclear energy producers want to get away from nuclear as fast as possible in that country.
As shown in recent articles, Germany and a couple of states in Europe have achieved massive benchmarks in May 2016 in the use of green energy, running the countries for days on end on renewable energy, which in Germany is mainly wind. I asked my German partner about this and he told me a strange story about green electricity in Germany. He rides past wind generator plants and they have been turned off, because there is now an oversupply of energy in Germany and the old industry (coal and nuclear) gets priority to put into the grid, but the price of power is now so low its negative, so perhaps the wind plants make a profit when turned off. I don’t know all the facts on this case.
green electricity ? what do the experts say ?
Look at Eskom’s website, their page on renewables comprises a few lines and their new coal plants have pages of writing.
Questioning two insiders in the South African energy industry, on the possibility of green electricity here, this is what I learned: The one is ex Koeberg and ex Eskom, now a lecturer. Under cross examination by me in a coffee shop at N1 city, I asked him about renewable energy and the new benchmarks in Europe. His response was a trifle dismissive, he definitely has the up on all those German anti-nuclear people, and started explaining to me that wind turbines couldn’t run without input from the grid. He also said that Germany talks about its green energy but is secretly buying nuclear energy from France. About South Africa he said we have the money to build renewable energy plants here, but wind and solar required too much space, whereas a nuclear plant is compact. I wonder. Germany can nearly run on wind energy and it is the most cramped built up country compared to here. If we have one thing they do not have it is enough space.
His claim that Germany had to back up the shortfall in its energy needs with nuclear energy from France is clearly questionable as the price of energy is negative due to oversupply and they are turning off wind plants, so there is no shortfall of energy in Germany. The trouble is that the output of a wind turbine is so insignificant compared to a nuclear plant, that there may be issues of size here and both parties be partly correct in a distorted way.
My second source, someone involved in the building of coal plants, told me green energy was nonsense and coal and oil were much stronger. I suppose he was referring to the comparison of the output of a single plant unit using the different energy sources. What strikes me in both stories is the dismissiveness. If arguably the most technically sophisticated country in the world has dropped coal and nuclear as fast and as far as they can, and or are fighting to leave it behind, can we be so informed if we sneer at what they do and think green energy is a load of old hokey. The language, the behaviour of anti green energy people often sounds more like prejudice than careful rational thought. Saying this as a discourse analyst and autism spectrum observer of faces.
For my own rationalization of what is happening in Germany: the country exports technology and has for quite a while. Green electricity is at the heart of the next industrial revolution after the digital and could be construed that it is in their selfish interests to subvert fossil fuel and nuclear based technology, and export the new green technology, and be ahead of everyone else in its production. Nonetheless, there are crumbs from this vast table of new and developing green technology for the quick thinking and the progressive anywhere, and we too could develop forward thinking technologies for export. So why is the attitude so negative ?
I'm worried about our technical educators if they do not take on the responsibility that is really entailed in the educating of young minds and stay out of touch with global trends or are scornful of anything too cutting edge, and are proud of their ‘no-nonsense’ ethos (and green energy obviously is nonsense). They pass on to the next generation a knowledge set that will be like a millstone rather than a pair of wings.
I think we can learn from the debate about green electricity in Germany. The country which has depended on technological development to stabilize its growth, is moving to clean energy. They have ridden through several recessions on the back of continued productive innovation. They think green technology is the next big thing….In South Africa we can afford renewables and we just need the space. We have the fifth highest sunlight hours in the world.
It would be better to look to Germany rather than the green-negative elements in the US, or the old Eastern bloc for models on energy, waste management, green roofs, green electricity and all the different aspects of green technology that are bringing about an industrial revolution. We can then add our own hot climate innovations to these. This would be better if we really want to be ready with the skills to provide jobs in all these new sectors opening up instead of waiting too long because we lack vision, and then ending up having to import skills for things which have become necessities.
sitemap
------
home page for green inspirations
------
green energy issues
------
introduction to the "from the German Papers" series
------
cooling off of the global warming protection policy in Germany
------
nuclear energy ideologies in Europe
------
German energy: public fission on nuclear energy
In the three articles on German energy we saw that the European union is far from united on the energy front, and if we compare a diversity of European nations, that our governmental ideology on energy in South Africa is most closely in harmony with the old fashioned energy school of Germany's eastern neighbours rather than with the giant of Technik itself. We see that in Germany the energy policy for environmental protection and emissions reduction is designed by the minister of the environment, and we see a government that can say a big "Nein !" to industry, but still is not all powerful, but that most voices except the actual nuclear energy producers want to get away from nuclear as fast as possible in that country.
As shown in recent articles, Germany and a couple of states in Europe have achieved massive benchmarks in May 2016 in the use of green energy, running the countries for days on end on renewable energy, which in Germany is mainly wind. I asked my German partner about this and he told me a strange story about green electricity in Germany. He rides past wind generator plants and they have been turned off, because there is now an oversupply of energy in Germany and the old industry (coal and nuclear) gets priority to put into the grid, but the price of power is now so low its negative, so perhaps the wind plants make a profit when turned off. I don’t know all the facts on this case.
green electricity ? what do the experts say ?
Look at Eskom’s website, their page on renewables comprises a few lines and their new coal plants have pages of writing.
Questioning two insiders in the South African energy industry, on the possibility of green electricity here, this is what I learned: The one is ex Koeberg and ex Eskom, now a lecturer. Under cross examination by me in a coffee shop at N1 city, I asked him about renewable energy and the new benchmarks in Europe. His response was a trifle dismissive, he definitely has the up on all those German anti-nuclear people, and started explaining to me that wind turbines couldn’t run without input from the grid. He also said that Germany talks about its green energy but is secretly buying nuclear energy from France. About South Africa he said we have the money to build renewable energy plants here, but wind and solar required too much space, whereas a nuclear plant is compact. I wonder. Germany can nearly run on wind energy and it is the most cramped built up country compared to here. If we have one thing they do not have it is enough space.
His claim that Germany had to back up the shortfall in its energy needs with nuclear energy from France is clearly questionable as the price of energy is negative due to oversupply and they are turning off wind plants, so there is no shortfall of energy in Germany. The trouble is that the output of a wind turbine is so insignificant compared to a nuclear plant, that there may be issues of size here and both parties be partly correct in a distorted way.
My second source, someone involved in the building of coal plants, told me green energy was nonsense and coal and oil were much stronger. I suppose he was referring to the comparison of the output of a single plant unit using the different energy sources. What strikes me in both stories is the dismissiveness. If arguably the most technically sophisticated country in the world has dropped coal and nuclear as fast and as far as they can, and or are fighting to leave it behind, can we be so informed if we sneer at what they do and think green energy is a load of old hokey. The language, the behaviour of anti green energy people often sounds more like prejudice than careful rational thought. Saying this as a discourse analyst and autism spectrum observer of faces.
For my own rationalization of what is happening in Germany: the country exports technology and has for quite a while. Green electricity is at the heart of the next industrial revolution after the digital and could be construed that it is in their selfish interests to subvert fossil fuel and nuclear based technology, and export the new green technology, and be ahead of everyone else in its production. Nonetheless, there are crumbs from this vast table of new and developing green technology for the quick thinking and the progressive anywhere, and we too could develop forward thinking technologies for export. So why is the attitude so negative ?
I'm worried about our technical educators if they do not take on the responsibility that is really entailed in the educating of young minds and stay out of touch with global trends or are scornful of anything too cutting edge, and are proud of their ‘no-nonsense’ ethos (and green energy obviously is nonsense). They pass on to the next generation a knowledge set that will be like a millstone rather than a pair of wings.
I think we can learn from the debate about green electricity in Germany. The country which has depended on technological development to stabilize its growth, is moving to clean energy. They have ridden through several recessions on the back of continued productive innovation. They think green technology is the next big thing….In South Africa we can afford renewables and we just need the space. We have the fifth highest sunlight hours in the world.
It would be better to look to Germany rather than the green-negative elements in the US, or the old Eastern bloc for models on energy, waste management, green roofs, green electricity and all the different aspects of green technology that are bringing about an industrial revolution. We can then add our own hot climate innovations to these. This would be better if we really want to be ready with the skills to provide jobs in all these new sectors opening up instead of waiting too long because we lack vision, and then ending up having to import skills for things which have become necessities.
sitemap
------
home page for green inspirations
------
green energy issues
------
introduction to the "from the German Papers" series
------
cooling off of the global warming protection policy in Germany
------
nuclear energy ideologies in Europe
------
German energy: public fission on nuclear energy