Solar Power

I read this research paper termed " Solar Power and Sustainability in Developing Countries." It began by reiterating what we have learned over the semester, which is we are too dependent on fossil fuels. In this case it focused on developing countries, that are trying to progress and how investing in fossil fuels will continue to do damage to the environment. Also, the resources available to these developing countries to ensure the distribution of electricity is really difficult because of places like isolated villages and poor grid systems.

Solar panels on village huts in Kenya.

So, their solution is solar power. Which for most developing countries is readily available to them and therefore would not be scattered resource. They also argued that because there are building more and more efficient solar power machines, that brings competition and therefore will lower down prices. Also there has also been a lot of international investment in the alternative energy in developing countries and therefore the foundation has already been built.

The only thing I disagree with in this paper, is it made the switch to alternative energy in developing countries seem super simplistic. In several papers I have read, it has been said that alternative energy is easily adaptable in developing countries but so far none of the papers I have read give a reason why these energies haven't overtaken in these countries.

Here is the link for the above mentioned paper.

That's it for now. More research.

Minimalism After Thoughts

Documentary on Netflix, book as well.

 This weekend I watched Minimalism on Netflix. It was a documentary centered around the two founders of minimalism and how it has affected their lives. The documentary begins the explanation of consumerism and how over the past 100 years it has gotten completely out of control.

The documentary mainly focuses on the psychological benefits of living a minimalist lifestyle. For example, feeling like you have purpose and control over your life because the things that are in your space are not just for clutter but for a purpose. It creates a community being able to ask others for help with things instead of just going out to buy it. For example, a pregnant woman who practices this lifestyle needed a formal dress and instead of going out and buying one, she asked her girlfriends if she could borrow one.

It touched a little bit about the ecological costs of over consumption which including burning of coal, use of natural gas. Also the social injustices such as sweat shops in order to dodge labor costs and so on.

Borrow a cup of sugar from your neighbor

The one thing I enjoyed about this documentary was it is not again consumerism and it understands that the way to fix these issues is not by telling everyone to stop buying things. Instead it discourages "compulsory consumerism" which means buying things because that's what you ought to do, that's what it means to have made it and attained the American Dream. Instead ask yourself " Does this thing bring value to my life?" The movie understands that this looks different for everyone and therefore can be applied accordingly. Another interesting thing they mentioned was the use of space in American homes and how places like the dinning room aren't fully used and therefore end up being a waste of space. Coming from a country that is founded in community this was interesting to watch and see people live the way I remember living back home and learning to count on each other.

The psychological need to grow and continue grow is discussed just as it was in Eaarth. How marketing manipulates that need is very impressive and daunting what it has been able to make people do for years. So if you are interested in living in another way and want to contribute to a sustainable system, this is an important documentary to watch.

Use of space in American homes. Visit lifeedited.com  

Alternative Energy: Why haven't we switched over already?

Taylor and I decided to research on alternative energy. We keep seeing this key word in most environmental centered readings we have, they are shown to be the solution. Time and time again we keep seeing these technologies are available e.g, solar panels, wind turbines, hybrid cars etc. So why haven't we switched over yet?

If you all remember, at a class discussion hosted by Dr. David Benac, he had made a point about leap frogging technology in the developing world. Obviously the development of developing countries is of great interest to me. So, the first source I read tackles whether developing countries can skip the centralized electrification system and why it is so difficult for developed countries to do that.

William in Malawi builds turbines for villages

So first, leap frogging is just the ability for societies to advance to newer technology without using the infrastructure of its predecessor. For example, the use of cellphones in developed countries without using the landline infrastructure first. Can this approach be used for electricity as well? The issue in developing countries which I have also experienced in Uganda, is shortages and it is not because the technology to generate electricity doesn't exist but the distribution systems are not as efficient. This is because in most developing countries the cities and rural areas are vastly different and far. Suburbs exist but there is also isolated homes and isolated suburbs people distribute themselves all over. This makes it hard to create efficient grid technologies that are able to reach everyone.

Therefore these developing countries find themselves investing a lot of resources in grid expansion and still have a large amount of the population without electricity. While, the introduction of solar panels which can work for individual homes are easily installed and applies, because the grid infrastructure is not too efficient it is easy to override and leapfrog to new technology. While in developed countries since there has been so much investment into the current grid, and most homes are connected in each grid it makes it difficult to apply these new technologies to a grid.

Another interesting fact I read is that the United Nations has an initiative that was  introduced in 2012, with the aim to provide universal access to modern energy services by 2030. Which I didn't know about.

Still have lot of research to do, but so far the topic seems interesting.