Post AxUESXZQwdZIsqAR9s by bortzmeyer@mastodon.gougere.fr
(DIR) More posts by bortzmeyer@mastodon.gougere.fr
(DIR) Post #AxTtemG443GssF6LXk by impermanen_@zirk.us
2025-08-24T01:26:28Z
1 likes, 2 repeats
Somehow missed this:Pakistan, home to more than 240 million people, is experiencing one of the most rapid #solar revolutions on the planet, even as it grapples with poverty and economic instability.Suddenly about half the country’s electricity comes from solar. It’s not industrial solar farms or state-led: it’s a bottom-up revolution: households fed up with rising power costs and blackouts buying what are now ridiculously cheap solar panels.https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/01/climate/pakistan-solar-boom
(DIR) Post #AxU0KJNKRKKLBOgfx2 by EvolLove@noauthority.social
2025-08-24T04:01:44Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@impermanen_ It's probably the constant black outs. They want to have some backup power. Probably only connected to an old car battery or 2. It will power a tv or a computer for a few hours. Perhaps a fan and a fridge.
(DIR) Post #AxUESXZQwdZIsqAR9s by bortzmeyer@mastodon.gougere.fr
2025-08-24T06:40:02Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@impermanen_ Interesting and also mentions some of the downsides (unlike many one-sided articles). But batteries are not mentioned (except "Once you combine solar and batteries", a big "once") so how people do at night?
(DIR) Post #AxUHHUeRl1fyVUw6Pg by jt_rebelo@ciberlandia.pt
2025-08-24T07:11:35Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@bortzmeyer they are used to not having electricity for large parts of the day, specially during the day and most of the night. Blackouts and brownouts occur daily around there, so people finally have more reliable electricity (or electricity at all) during the sunny hours and keep doing whatever they already did into the night (gas generators or use no power at all).Batteries (better, energy storage availability and cost) is the major hurdle that, if surpassed, will make solar the definitive renewable energy source for most of the Southern Hemisphere and a big part of the Northern Hemisphere.@impermanen_
(DIR) Post #AxUSXivxWRqQvs4Lrs by bortzmeyer@mastodon.gougere.fr
2025-08-24T09:17:50Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@jt_rebelo @impermanen_ Note that batteries raise a lot of environmental issues (besides cost and availability), their creation and disposal are not especially environment-friendly.
(DIR) Post #AxUUCuLK6m7S908R1s by jt_rebelo@ciberlandia.pt
2025-08-24T09:36:28Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@bortzmeyer the chemical ones do, but fossil fuel based energy production does worse to the environment (we're not where we are on climate change because of batteries). There are storage methods (mainly gravity based) already in use without major environmental side effects and growing efficiency, and new chemical batteries' chemistry being developed as we speak that can change energy storage for the better (environmental and capacity wise). It can't be a Northern and Western Hemisphere's exclusive, and the Western Hemisphere is at the front anymore when it comes to research of better solutions and implementation (yes, lack of regulation is one of the major drivers, the risks that come from it are well-known, that is what the West might be useful for, as warning to the Global South and East).@impermanen_
(DIR) Post #AxUWwS93TmLtv3F4L2 by maxpayn@mastodon.social
2025-08-24T10:07:05Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@bortzmeyer @impermanen_ one downside is that solar panel they use are very inefficient and have older technology unlike solar panel which are available in US/EU and China
(DIR) Post #AxWwY08AyCUxD1kfdg by ni_nad@mastodon.social
2025-08-24T16:09:22Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@impermanen_ here in India, many folks ended up installing inverters (called UPS here) because the local utilities could not handle peak load. When the government doesn't spend, citizens have to spend from their own pocket, usually at a much higher overall expense. This feels similar. Fortunately, the Indian government has been pushing subsidies for solar setups, so we may have learnt a tiny bit from our previous mistakes