Dumelang Saleshando says Yesterday in Parliament when I presented the BCP proposals on how to address the power crisis, which included taking steps to prioritize the setting up of Solar Thermal Stations and subsidizing households that want to convert to solar so as to take advantage of the abundant solar available and reduce pressure on the grid, Minister Mokaila responded as follows: Honorable Member, in his thinking, thinks that going for solar now is the most sensible thing to do. Here is the real fact Mister Speaker, the real fact is solar is expensive, solar is not dispatch-able at night and when you look at your power demand supply, you realise that your peak hours are during the evenings and the mornings. Two things to note, we are in the current crisis because it was decided in the late 80s that it is cheaper to import power than to build local power production capacity. BPC Phikwe plant was closed because power could be imported from South Africa and we moved from importing only 25% of our total power requirements to relying on imports to the magnitude of over 70%. If we want cheap power it is easily available and it is called darkness, which we have in abundance at the moment. Secondly, and I may be wrong, I thought the solar concept works with rechargeable batteries. Could it be true that solar powered lights will only work during the day and go off s soon as the sun sets? Those who know better will help me with their expertise... #Minister o o tlhabisa ditlhong tota! I still say when it come to leaders, Modimo o re sotlile!
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 17:41:00 +0000
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