I would love to hear why Eskom can't - or won't - do this.
US energy company Edison International plans to start a five-year plan to roll out 250 megawatts of solar panels on the rooftops of commercial buildings in California. It's not a mega-project: it's a big project done in small steps of 1 MW a week. Apart from the fact that electricity will be generated close to where it's most needed - and building owners can benefit financially by providing space for the panels - the beauty of this approach is that newer solar panel technologies can be used as they are developed, and the project can benefit from the steadily falling price of a megawatt of solar generating capacity. There is no need to lock into technology that becomes superseded by more efficient panels. And how about this: if one set of rooftop panels goes offline, the rest keep on generating - no big machinery to be shut down for maintenance. And this: no new transmission lines to build, no towers to construct, no extra land consumed.
Granted, 250 MW is not a huge amount of electricity - it's less than a tenth of the output of a standard coal-fired power station. But it will start to look better as buildings and other electricity consumers become more efficient. In Southern California, 250 MW will run 162,000 homes - but those are homes that guzzle power like a cool drink on a hot day. Improve building design and build in more efficient fittings and appliances, and more homes can drink from the well of renewable energy. Take away electrically-powered water heaters, air conditioners and stoves, and renewables suddenly become significant. Even Eskom understands that improving energy efficiency is the cheapest way out of the supply crisis.
Municipalities should be pushing hard for this. Especially departments worried about traffic safety during power blackouts. Instead of mounting solar panels atop traffic signals, and chaining a set of batteries to the nearest tree, they could be tapping into secure rooftop systems. Inside the well-designed buildings, the wiring circuits will be planned to ensure that mission-critical systems are fed from the backup solar system.
As efficient systems, renewable power sources and more visible monitoring strategies become commonplace (so that we can see the impact on consumption from the day-to-day decisions we make), we will gradually improve our individual and collective performance. We'll move towards less carbon-intense lifestyles, almost without noticing it, which will further increase the options for alternative power sources. Everybody wins.
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