Bringing Clean Energy to Rural Africa
In response to a friend in South Africa who wanted my opinion on a business plan to bring fuel cells and solar PV to rural Africa, I wrote:
Very interesting. Certainly the solar product with batteries makes sense. I think (hope, at least) that the world is destined to bring renewable energy to rural Africa, leapfrogging the fossil fuel / utilities model of the rest of the world. I’m not as sure on the natural gas / fuel cell piece. I’d like to see microgrids with PV and wind, perhaps using microwind products like WindStream and mid-sized wind like Continental Wind or the Wind Turbine Company.
How all this works politically in Africa is anyone’s guess. Donors have trouble getting food and medical supplies to where they’re needed; I can’t imagine what this is going to be like.
Good luck!
I was lucky enough to see Hal Holbrook deliver his one-man show “Mark Twain Tonight!” on Saturday evening. Holbrook’s opening night was in 1954 (the year before I was born) since which there have been over 2000 performances. Let’s just make an understatement: he’s seriously good at this.
Yes, the audience is transported, but perhaps the most remarkable thing about the content of the performance is how little change there has been in our perception of the incompetence and corruption in government, which, of course, was the fodder for so many of Twain’s pithy remarks during his life.
It’s becoming increasingly important to find cars and driving habits that will reduce our dependence on traditional fuel, while limiting the amount of CO2 and other emissions produced by vehicles. Guilt-free motoring, both in terms of what our cars produce, and how much strain on our bank accounts it produces, is probably not going to happen anytime soon. However, hybrids represent one way of lowering your individual debt by investing in cars with dual electric motors and batteries. Hybrids are now a commonplace option for drivers, with all major car manufacturers producing them. 
