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."

Re:Something wrong with this picture!

[Xicor]

solar energy installation is incredibly cheap.... like pennies. the only reason why every houshold in the US doesnt have solar panels is because the energy companies lobby our government to increase the cost of them thousandfold. .there have been many recent cases in certain states where you have to go through months of bureaucracy and thousands of dollars to install a few feet of solar panels due to all the restrictions and paperwork and permits and whatnot, while in other countries, or even some states, it is as simple as buying the solar panels and having someone install them. . i believe there was an article about this on slashdot a few months ago.

Re:Hmm

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Problem: Poor people can't afford power.
Solution: Supply just about the most expensive form of power available... for free.

Problem: The infrastructure build-out needed to produce cheap coal-fired electricity is never going to be justified by poor people as customers,and we can't afford it as a social or populist program.

Solution: As with so many things, the marginal value of going from 'nothing' to 'something' is a whole hell of a lot higher than the marginal value of going from 'something' to 'lots of something', so we can gain many of the benefits at a fraction of the cost by choosing a system that costs a lot per kilowatt-hour; but comparatively little in capital costs, and fuck-all in ongoing maintenance.

I realize that all the best insights fit on bumper stickers; but it is occasionally possible that ideas occupying several whole sentences are actually just elitist plots against honest common sense, rather than elitist communist plots against honest common sense and economic logic.

It's pretty mind blowing.

Re:Not a crazy idea...

[niftymitch]

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.

Re:Something wrong with this picture!

[crazybit]

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.

Re:Something wrong with this picture!

[pwizard2]

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!

Another Nail In Our Coffin

[b4upoo]

I realize that the public in the US is sort of zoned out, brain dead or zombie like. But really we just can not keep pretending that other nations are backwards or poorly governed when they so frequently do things that the US can not. If any claims about American superiority are true we should be more than able to do things like provide solar power for the poor, medical care, and countless other items such as decent educations for poor students.
                        We are appearing clown like to the world.