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Peru To Provide Free Solar Power To Its Poorest Citizens
An anonymous reader writes "Peru is looking to provide free electricity to over 2 million of its poorest citizens by harvesting energy from the sun. Energy and Mining Minister Jorge Merino said that the National Photovoltaic Household Electrification Program will provide electricity to poor households through the installation of photovoltaic panels."
Get real. A $50 panel will be stolen and on the black market faster than you can say "ay carumba".
Yes... yet the OLPC folk found that social pressure more than locks and chains protected their resources.
Many stable social systems are very effective in keeping shared commons resources protected. Libraries are a good example. Yes books are stolen but by and large they are returned. Extra books are donated for the good of the community.
In truly remote communities a thief would be days from a black market and a community resource would have Matt Dillon and Festus run the dog to ground.
Drug cartels and others might complicate this... yet investing for this is far better than investing in gun ships.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.
Peru is using photovoltaics to provide small amounts of electricity without the infrastructure cost, which makes perfect sense.
That is EXACTLY why I consider this is an AWESOME idea. I have visited some of those locations, and the geography around them is extremely harsh. Many of these families live above 2500m altitude (some even above 3500m - 4000m), get their water from rivers, wells or old aqueducts (some of them made during the Inka's empire), and live mainly from farming and livestock. Giving them electricity from PV so they can use basic things, like led lights and small radios, will improve their quality of life A LOT. Bringing them electricity from the regular grid would be cost-prohibitive.
- Human knowledge belongs to the world
It's sad, but that is the prevailing mentality in the USA right wing these days. Helping other people and generally being a decent human being is decried as "OMG SOCIALISM!!!!!11" and is looked down upon because such actions just help a bunch of "lazy moochers". How are the poor supposed to haul themselves up by their bootstraps when they can't even afford shoes? Of course, those poor people have no one but themselves to blame because they weren't born into rich families, right? The rich people who act like that are fucking hypocrites because they often get corporate subsidies and tax breaks the rest of us peons can't exploit--and then they act like they fucking worked for it!
"It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity."