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Time to seriously consider solar energy
2006-01-27 07:45:42
By Deogratias Mushi
Global climate changes have wreaked havoc in the advent of short rains in Tanzania. Scattered rains have been falling all over the place except in areas that are sources of water for major rivers that feed dams that generate hydro electricity to the national grid.
Subsequently, the national grid has insufficient electricity to satisfy the demand of power for industrial use as well as for other daily requirements for Tanzanians.
Early this week, virtually the whole of Tanzania experienced a total blackout for some three hours. This nasty experience caused concern not only to many factory owners but also to those who provide social services that need electricity.
No nation can legislate against global climate changes that adversely affect people and their socio-economic activities.
The ongoing drought is killing cattle in north east Kenya.
It is drying streams in Maasai Mara National Park, forcing wild animals to make an unprecedented migration to the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania hoping to get water and fodder in the Masai steppes.
Cattle in western and central Tanzania are so thin that one can exchange one head for a tin of maize.
Our government has started distributing relief food to areas that should have been eating fresh farm produce if the short rains came as they should have come.
The situation is bound to be worse as the year progresses.
We are writing this comment not because we have plausible recommendations to make to the government to effect a belated advent of short rains.
We are writing out of sheer concern - that we want to recommend to the government and institutions that oversee our development, that they should consider using other options in so far as the provision of electricity is concerned.
Our recommendation is simple indeed. It is the use of solar power for lighting and manufacturing products that do not need thousands of kilowatts a day.
The sun shines almost 12 hours a day throughout the year. Yet we do not use its light to produce electricity. This simple fact is almost beyond human imagination!
Global climate changes cannot, and will not, affect the light emanating from the sun for the next billions of years. Yet we do not use sunlight to produce electricity for our daily use.
It is high time Tanzanians were educated on the use of solar energy in their daily activities.
We know that once many Tanzanians start using solar power they would cease using firewood or charcoal.
If this option will be seriously considered, investment in the productions of solar cells should surely be forthcoming.
We are therefore recommending to investors, in Tanzania or outside the country, to put their money in the production of solar energy appliances that will save us from total dependence of electricity from the national grid.
The production of such appliances, as we know, is less expensive than the use of the Mchuchuma coal or the increased use of Songo Songo gas that is intended to augment the supply of electricity.
At the same time, the use of solar energy appliances will help us reduce the use of firewood, and in the process halt the rampant deforestation that is occurring all over Tanzania.
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