Energy and economy

I find it somewhat amusing how humans seem to have designed and created incredibly successful societies based on the availability of different commodities. There was the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, the industrial age and now our own current information age.

The logical progression from rock and caves to fire and metal and, eventually, industrial explosion and information overdose seems to be driving us along a scenic route of war, poverty, famine and widening social inequality. The appearance of these highway markers is not so surprising; they seem to have an insistent cyclical nature that calls for survival of the fittest. I struggle to imagine early hominid species living in peace and harmony alongside each other, sharing food and resources without bloody encounters somewhere along the way. Human nature has stayed true throughout the millennia, competitive for success, resources and survival.

Future success and indeed survival depends on access to and ability to transform resources into usable and tradable commodities. Energy seems to be central to this equation. Some of us may remember from physics lessons that energy cannot be created, only transferred. This implies that there is a finite quantity of energy in the cosmos and that this balance may be mimicked in smaller systems occurring within the universe.

In itself, this is not a worrying situation; it affords us the luxury of knowing that whatever is consumed must be transformed and given back in some way. Mankind has devised ingenious ways of locating, extracting, processing, distributing and using energy, which has been captured in the Earth for hundreds of millions of years. Fossil-fuel reserves are treasured in our energy-hungry civilisation, and rightly so: he who controls the energy …

What we haven’t really dealt with efficiently is the completion of the cycle and how to stimulate regeneration. At present, we extract these wondrous sources of energy and then combust them, leaving the waste products to be flared into the atmosphere as atomic particles. Seems wasteful, doesn’t it? I don’t want to enter the global-warming debate here; let’s leave that for another time.

Considerable thought and research is aimed at devising methods to capture and contain these atomic waste particles. More focus is placed on finding additional fossil-fuel resources. I would like to see a shift in research and development focus from resource extraction to regeneration of captured waste into fuel sources. If we can capture carbon dioxide, contain it and somehow find an energy-efficient way of transforming it into fuel again, wouldn’t that be a wholesome and more sustainable cycle?

Solving the fuel-waste cycle balance will, however, not address our immediate supply shortfall problems. We simply need more energy — now. I don’t know if I can calmly cope with another “load shed” episode, and I certainly believe that businesses should claim for losses from their electricity provider. All the capital projects related to electricity generation and distribution currently under way may approximate supplying the electricity-demand levels when they become operational in, let’s say, five years’ time.

Is it only me, or are we missing the point here? Economic growth is not going to slow down and wait for energy-supply capacity to catch up, unless it is forced to. Now this is the type of scenario that should give every business owner, executive and politician in this country sleepless nights.

I have to wonder why there hasn’t been more emphasis on and investment into alternative energy sources, technologies, supply models and implementation. Ah, the old arguments: coal is cheap and it’s Eskom’s responsibility to supply electricity. This is just dandy, especially if you find yourself in a situation where you have limited confidence in your ability to conduct business as a result of insecure electricity supply, right? Once again, let’s steer away from emotive issues and climate-change impacts of a few billion tonnes of carbon dioxide being pumped directly into our atmosphere every year.

There are some perfectly good solutions to some of the problems. Renewable energy technologies exist, are reliable, are commonly used elsewhere and are becoming cheaper. Energy-efficient equipment has been around for ages, is effective, cheap and commonly available. Efficiency-improvement technologies are and can be developed and customised to serve specific needs.

These technologies are entry points into the energy future: clean power sources, distributed generation models and customised energy-trading schemes, variable tariff structures and independent power provision. They are but the start to what may become the energy revolution, but they are here and they are available and they can save you a whole lot of headache if adopted and implemented. These aren’t the only solutions, but they are at present the most sustainable.

Renewable technologies are considered to be expensive and, yes, the capital layout may set you back somewhat initially, but the cost related to lost business opportunity as a result of blackouts may shorten your payback period on these solutions significantly! Although your solar panels or small wind turbines will not power your heavy industrial processes, it will ensure that the lights are on, communication and trade is possible, administration and other support services continue and that your doors are open for business, albeit delivery is a little delayed.

It is but a brief matter of time before renewable energy users are paid for energy generated, through tradable renewable energy certificates, which can be redeemed for cash. The next step is for our government and Nersa to institute feed-in tariffs to subsidise the roll-out of these technologies and enable additional cost-avoidance agreements as a result of assisting our national provider to avoid costs related to increased generation capacity.

Additional current benefits relate to registering clean development mechanism (CDM) projects, generating carbon credits and trading these through international schemes.

Our national electricity tariffs will be increasing steadily over the coming years to cover capital expenditure related to new capacity building. If global trends and international policies start advocating externality costing to coal power generators, the tariff hikes may be much more dramatic than anyone anticipates.

All these factors combine to make the use of renewable alternatives highly attractive. Add to these the additional benefits of mitigation against climate change, educating and building awareness through visible leadership and riding the crest of the energy technology wave into the future, and there is no reason not to explore what renewable energy solutions may do for you.

We have no excuse not to grow our economy, if we take power into our own hands.