April 2019 letters to the editor of business day
April 2019 letters to the Editor of Business Day
Sir
New Zealand aims to completely phase out sales of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in favour of electric vehicles by 2030. Some 58% of cars on Norwegian roads are already electric or hybrid. Many other countries are speeding in the same direction. Meanwhile, here in South Africa we applaud Nissan’s pre-election plans to spend R 4 billion to expand its Pretoria factory to produce yet more ICE vehicles for which there will be no export market before too long.
Of course, for electric vehicles to make sense from a combined economic, environmental and health point of view, low cost, renewable energy is essential for charging the batteries. And, if all our vehicles were electric, we would no longer need to spend billions on crude oil imports every year, to say nothing of investing in Sudanese oil fields.
Back in 1890, before ICE cars widely existed, my great grandfather gave up mending ox wagons as a career as he glimpsed the future. Why can’t our political, business and union leaders give up their ox wagon, Eskom focused mentality and catapult us into the future the rest of the world already enjoys! I am sure Pretoria’s Boys’ alumnus Elon Musk would love to lend a hand. After all, it was just a couple of years back that he lit a rocket under Australia’s energy policy fossils by installing a giant battery in ninety days; now South Australia could be 100% renewable within ten years. So, why is he not on the Eskom restructuring team?
Instead we get urged to vote for Peter Bruce’s corrupt, incompetent, short sighted friends who will keep us in the dark ages, coughing up expensive soot and PM2.5 particles, for ever and a night.
Sincerely
Brian Paxton
Sir,
Protests by the Extinction Rebellion, the climate change activist group, brought London to a halt last week. Similar protests about the lack of action by other signatory governments to the Paris Accord in other cities around the world were less dramatic. Meanwhile, here in South Africa there’s been nary a mention of the subject as the electioneering hots up along with our temperatures. Instead our power stations, factories and vehicles belch ever larger quantities of CO2, NOx and other noxious compounds.
In their book, Climate Change: Briefings from Southern Africa, Bob Scholes, Mary Scholes and Mike Lucas point out that climate change is taking place faster in South Africa than other parts of Africa. The western and central parts of the country are going to become drier while the southern and eastern parts of the country, Africa’s future breadbasket, will be wetter. Of course, swathes of this latter area are currently used to grow sugar cane, the derivatives of which cause increased obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
This region is also the location of the agriculturally non-productive, male dominated, tribal tyrannies of Transkei, Ciskei, Kwazulu and eSwati. Maybe it’s time the denizens of these territories were given freehold title to the land on which they live. Then they could raise a mortgage to pay for a greenhouse or a tractor. The land would become green and the poor would become middle class. No longer would they need to emigrate to the cities. Or, if they sold their land to neighbouring farmers and moved, they would have a nest egg for starting their new urban lives without waiting years for government to build them a house.
And that’s not the end of it. Rural teachers would be able to use their housing allowances to buy land in the communities where they teach and entrepreneurs would be able to buy land to start trading stores and small businesses close to their country customers. Those fortunate enough to live beside pristine beaches could build guest houses to tempt international tourists who can’t get visas. Some might even defy Eskom regulations and erect solar and wind farms to power their neighbours and slow our rate of extinction.
You would have thought that Peter Bruce, with his roots in the rural Transkei, would be 100% behind this kind of thinking. Alas, his cronies in the ANC and Cosatu are steadfastly lacking any creative ideas about meeting the challenges – including climate change and poverty - that face us. Instead, like Nero in ancient Rome, they fiddle the books while the country burns. Poor us and all our grandchildren on our way to extinction, much like the proverbial frogs in heating water!
Sincerely
Brian Paxton
Sir,
Australia is awash with misinformation about climate change and renewable energy, much of it stoked by the coal lobby supported Liberal National Government, aided and abetted by the Murdoch press. So, I am not surprised to find that Andrew Kenny is misinformed about South Australia’s Tesla big battery project, the Hornsdale Power Reserve.
Financial information provided by French renewable energy developer Neoen show that the battery cost $Aus 87 million and took less than one hundred days to install. In the first year of operation it generated net revenues of more than 25% of the capital cost and saved almost $Aus 40 million in grid costs.
The Australian Energy Market Operator confirms that the battery has stabilised the network and prevented blackouts as a result of its speed, versatility and accuracy in responding to events, especially as coal fired units tripped out as demand peaked during a summer of record high temperatures. Most important, it has reduced the cost of electricity to consumers.
Although Australia does have natural gas resources they are expensive to extract. As a result, gas is more expensive as a source of electricity than any other source, except perhaps diesel, and certainly much more expensive than using the Tesla battery.
The cause of Australian electricity price rises from 2005 were mostly grid based network costs and had nothing to do with renewables. Renewables are bringing down the cost of electricity as well as cutting emissions as coal fired plants are decommissioned. This is what should be happening in South Africa where we forget that the emissions from our coal fired power stations contribute directly to the climate changes causing flooding in Mozambique and KwaZulu Natal this month!
Sincerely
Brian Paxton
Sir
New Zealand aims to completely phase out sales of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in favour of electric vehicles by 2030. Some 58% of cars on Norwegian roads are already electric or hybrid. Many other countries are speeding in the same direction. Meanwhile, here in South Africa we applaud Nissan’s pre-election plans to spend R 4 billion to expand its Pretoria factory to produce yet more ICE vehicles for which there will be no export market before too long.
Of course, for electric vehicles to make sense from a combined economic, environmental and health point of view, low cost, renewable energy is essential for charging the batteries. And, if all our vehicles were electric, we would no longer need to spend billions on crude oil imports every year, to say nothing of investing in Sudanese oil fields.
Back in 1890, before ICE cars widely existed, my great grandfather gave up mending ox wagons as a career as he glimpsed the future. Why can’t our political, business and union leaders give up their ox wagon, Eskom focused mentality and catapult us into the future the rest of the world already enjoys! I am sure Pretoria’s Boys’ alumnus Elon Musk would love to lend a hand. After all, it was just a couple of years back that he lit a rocket under Australia’s energy policy fossils by installing a giant battery in ninety days; now South Australia could be 100% renewable within ten years. So, why is he not on the Eskom restructuring team?
Instead we get urged to vote for Peter Bruce’s corrupt, incompetent, short sighted friends who will keep us in the dark ages, coughing up expensive soot and PM2.5 particles, for ever and a night.
Sincerely
Brian Paxton
Sir,
Protests by the Extinction Rebellion, the climate change activist group, brought London to a halt last week. Similar protests about the lack of action by other signatory governments to the Paris Accord in other cities around the world were less dramatic. Meanwhile, here in South Africa there’s been nary a mention of the subject as the electioneering hots up along with our temperatures. Instead our power stations, factories and vehicles belch ever larger quantities of CO2, NOx and other noxious compounds.
In their book, Climate Change: Briefings from Southern Africa, Bob Scholes, Mary Scholes and Mike Lucas point out that climate change is taking place faster in South Africa than other parts of Africa. The western and central parts of the country are going to become drier while the southern and eastern parts of the country, Africa’s future breadbasket, will be wetter. Of course, swathes of this latter area are currently used to grow sugar cane, the derivatives of which cause increased obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
This region is also the location of the agriculturally non-productive, male dominated, tribal tyrannies of Transkei, Ciskei, Kwazulu and eSwati. Maybe it’s time the denizens of these territories were given freehold title to the land on which they live. Then they could raise a mortgage to pay for a greenhouse or a tractor. The land would become green and the poor would become middle class. No longer would they need to emigrate to the cities. Or, if they sold their land to neighbouring farmers and moved, they would have a nest egg for starting their new urban lives without waiting years for government to build them a house.
And that’s not the end of it. Rural teachers would be able to use their housing allowances to buy land in the communities where they teach and entrepreneurs would be able to buy land to start trading stores and small businesses close to their country customers. Those fortunate enough to live beside pristine beaches could build guest houses to tempt international tourists who can’t get visas. Some might even defy Eskom regulations and erect solar and wind farms to power their neighbours and slow our rate of extinction.
You would have thought that Peter Bruce, with his roots in the rural Transkei, would be 100% behind this kind of thinking. Alas, his cronies in the ANC and Cosatu are steadfastly lacking any creative ideas about meeting the challenges – including climate change and poverty - that face us. Instead, like Nero in ancient Rome, they fiddle the books while the country burns. Poor us and all our grandchildren on our way to extinction, much like the proverbial frogs in heating water!
Sincerely
Brian Paxton
Sir,
Australia is awash with misinformation about climate change and renewable energy, much of it stoked by the coal lobby supported Liberal National Government, aided and abetted by the Murdoch press. So, I am not surprised to find that Andrew Kenny is misinformed about South Australia’s Tesla big battery project, the Hornsdale Power Reserve.
Financial information provided by French renewable energy developer Neoen show that the battery cost $Aus 87 million and took less than one hundred days to install. In the first year of operation it generated net revenues of more than 25% of the capital cost and saved almost $Aus 40 million in grid costs.
The Australian Energy Market Operator confirms that the battery has stabilised the network and prevented blackouts as a result of its speed, versatility and accuracy in responding to events, especially as coal fired units tripped out as demand peaked during a summer of record high temperatures. Most important, it has reduced the cost of electricity to consumers.
Although Australia does have natural gas resources they are expensive to extract. As a result, gas is more expensive as a source of electricity than any other source, except perhaps diesel, and certainly much more expensive than using the Tesla battery.
The cause of Australian electricity price rises from 2005 were mostly grid based network costs and had nothing to do with renewables. Renewables are bringing down the cost of electricity as well as cutting emissions as coal fired plants are decommissioned. This is what should be happening in South Africa where we forget that the emissions from our coal fired power stations contribute directly to the climate changes causing flooding in Mozambique and KwaZulu Natal this month!
Sincerely
Brian Paxton
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