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Lili Francklyn has worked in renewable energy, utility and climate-related marketing communications positions for over ten years. She is currently Editor of the Microgrid News at HOMER Energy by...
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Renewables and microgrid technologies have such a great potential to create some opportunity for reliable energy delivery for these developing and industrializing nations, giving them the ability to leapfrog the traditional grid system
"The solar microgrid will only allow one fluorescent bulb and cellphone charging, but that should be enough for poor people, right? I mean, they wash their clothes on rocks in the river, and everything..."
The arrogance of renewables advocacy knows no bounds.
Here's what really happenswhen rich Greenpeace kiddiesshowup in India with their plastic solar panels and build a microgrid: villagerschant "We want real electricity, not fake electricity!" - then replace it with coal.
"M.V. Ramana, a physicist at Princeton University who has studied energy access in India, questioned the ethics of foisting an expensive solution on the poor, who’ve historically contributed so little to global warming.
“I strongly encourage [microgrids] for urban, upper classes of people who can afford it,” he said. “But [I would] not do it on the backs of people who are poor and who can’t afford these experiments.”
Grid power, which in India’s case is mostly coal-based, generates enough electricity to power factories, agricultural processing, hospitals, schools and malls, all of which drive human development and create jobs, said Alex Trembath, a senior analyst at the California-based Breakthrough Institute.
Groups that claim that microgrids can fuel similar levels of development are 'conducting clean energy and climate policy on the backs of the global poor.'"
Lili, whatevidence do you haveisolated microgrids powered by renewables - anywhere - are capable of providing a robust, reliable source of electricity for machinery and small business?
Lili, your good intentions are duly acknowledged and commended - if only half of the global populationknew or cared as much about climate change, we'd be well on our way to a solution.
Here's the problem -
The title of your article is "Improving Energy Access in Rural Africa Depends on Renewable Energy Microgrids." But they aren't powered by renewable energy, are they? A more accurate title would be"Improving Energy Access in Rural Africa Depends on Diesel-Powered MicrogridsAugmented by Renewable Energy," given a very high percentage of the electricity used by rural Africans will be generatedby burning diesel fuel.
Now - do you have any evidence that diesel + renewables + storage will be any better, emissions-wise, than a well-maintained, coal-powered grid? I have my doubts, due toefficiencies of scale - the ability of one power plant to generate and distribute electricitymore efficiently and economically than multipleindependent units. The efficiencies are based on fundamental physical properties - less waste from starting and stopping engines, less waste due to lowerresistance from highAC line voltages, less waste due to refueling and maintenance requirements at one central plantvs.multiple separatelocations. In sum, it's nearlyinconceivable that emissions wouldn't be lower with electricity generated at one well-maintained source.
As all sources of energy become cleaner and more efficient over time, it's far easier to upgrade a single grid than hundreds or thousands of separate microgrids - anotherbenefit we can attributetoefficiencies of scale.
I like to point out America's electrical grids began as microgrids in the 1880s - separate, block-by-blockgeneration and distributionin New York City and Philadelphia - and it was a mess. Lack ofstandards, multiple paths for wiring, and stolen electricity were responsible for not only wasted money and electricity but catastrophic fires. Thus, over decades the regulated American utility model evolved, the productof hard experience. It would be a shame if other countries were forced to learn thosehard lessonsby people who weren't aware they hadalready been learned.
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