Redefining the idea about solar energy

Have you ever thought why TED talk became so popular? There is one common think which connects all these different talks we could find at TED – ideas worth spreading. Then, why is the idea is so important? Usually, people would have many ideas through the day which won’t be taken of paper or will remain just in their heads. Why would we need these foreign ideas? How can they impact us? Basically idea is a pattern or guidelines we see the world. When we see a picture of a woman with a hijab many different people would probably have different ideas in their heads depending on the ideas they had about a hidjab. A Muslim girl will probably relate herself much easier to this picture than a Cristian or Hindu girl. And yet that confirmation comes from my own idea about how the identity and image of certain religions works.

 

Ideas about the world is everything, it’s our guidelines on how to live and what to do. The politics comes from a certain ideas that determines the identity of every think we have around us. Solar energy is as well a concept which is often associated with words as “expensive, environment, innovation, future”. These worlds itself determine the futurist idea of solar energy as something very distant, something that the future generations should engage in, but not yet affordable for us. As a Brazilian government would argue, we have indeed many challenges to resolve, as food security, infrastructure, schools, health and etc. We can’t yet afford to think about the issues as the climate change, environment and innovation. However, if we could redefine the idea which is built the identity of solar energy, we could redefine its development path. On my point of view, what lacks in this picture of solar energy concept is a social pillar. 

Solar energy is the most democratic source of energy, where every household could generate the electricity and improve their well-being, as well as health in case they have used the kerosene lamps before. The solar energy creates new employment opportunities directly and indirectly fueling the local economy.Why then it so undeveloped in many socially vulnerable places?

The most important is to reshape the idea about solar energy in people’s mind as something futurist, available only for rich people. We have this picture because we constructed it, based on the existing idea, that solar energy is something we don’t have to invest or subsidize, while we intensively have subsidized other energy sources for many years. 

People often would buy a car which is more expensive than solar systems and it will be depreciated over time. While solar system is an investment which would increase the price of the house and will bring the electricity for free in 5-7 years. The argument could be raised that people need the cars for everyday live, yet don’t they need an affordable source of electricity on everyday bases? We designed the city in such way, that we need a car and it's impossible to go everywhere fast enough with the public transport! If there will be a good public transport, people won't need to buy cars and they would have additional financial resources to buy the Photovoltaic (PV) system. 

The PV system could bring to the consumer the constant energy price and he could stop worrying about the rise of electricity costs. If the capital cost spread all over the life time of system, it will get stable payments for the next 25 years! If the banks would change their picture about solar energy as something futuristic and reduce their interest rates, it will be affordable for middle class households, while government could help the poorest one. Thus, we could start defining the solar system as an investments, rather than expenditure, which would bring a different view on technology.  

China, for instance, has a different very complex notion of solar systems as a tool for social policy. After a series of programs equivalent to Brazilian "light for all" they managed to lift up 30 million people out of darkness providing government subsidized PV systems. Currently, they have a new program “Poverty Alleviation by PV” – this time is not only about the energy access, but to alleviate the poverty and provide the income for vulnerable families through the selling of solar energy to the grid. 3 Million of poor households (about 10 million people) will get a stable income of 1500 reais  (3000 yuan) per year.  And they will keep receiving this for the next 20 years. Indeed, instead of just redistributing the income among the citizens, we could use their roof space and pay for the energy the households would produce. 

Solar energy at school. Photo made by Wang Sicheng

In South Africa, as in many other African countries, the solar energy became an important platform for social enterprises. The latter are eradicating the kerosene problem and encourage the private sector to compete with them. Solar Monney, Mobisol and others offer the households to rent the PV systems and just pay monthly for the electricity through their cellphones. The most amazing for me was the solar sisters movement, which empowers woman and give them an energy access. They argue that the income of self-employed rural woman with access to energy is twice that of their counterparts without access to energy. The NGO is arguing about a crucial role of woman in energy sector and how it’s important for them to have an access to energy. 

All these examples are to present the social changes solar technologies could bring to the everyday life of people. By making the PV technology affordable option for the poor population, we redefine the idea about the solar energy being something futuristic, available only for rich or expenditure rather than investments. By bringing the social pillar into the identity of solar we could start to have a completely different picture of technology and the concept as a whole. 

I believe that instead of leaving for the next generations our duties, we could focus on how to use these newly available tools to resolve the old problems.