“We mustn’t listen to those who say we must only use renewable energy,” said aspiring president Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma at a church gathering this past weekend. No developed country uses only renewable energy, there must be a mix, she said.
It is highly unfortunate that our political leaders are so poorly informed about energy developments – or are they so well informed about the financial benefits to be gained through the procurement of nuclear energy that they support nuclear energy at all costs?
There are such dramatic developments taking place in electricity storage, and equally dramatic reduction in costs, that long before a nuclear power station could be built, renewable energy will be far cheaper, safer and more accessible to the people of South Africa than nuclear-generated electricity delivered through a centralised grid could ever be.
And so I am sending this message and U-tube link to our President and Deputy President and the Ministers of Finance, Energy and State Enterprises and to Eskom.
Dear President Zuma,
For the good of our country – yours and mine – I pray we look to the future and not back at the past.
Coal and nuclear are energy sources of the last century. I send this presentation by Tony Seba, given to the Nordic Energy Summit in 2016, it shows the future, with huge opportunities and potential benefit for us all, notably in our country with such renewable energy potential.
54-minute clip of his illustrated talk about the “disruption and dramatic developments” to traditional transport when improvements in the costs and technologies of solar energy, storage and electric cars converge.