While attention of people here on this blog is fixed on the US primaries, the world continues to change, in little steps, bit by bit. And while that is nowadays very often not a good change, sometimes it is. And there was a small news item today that seems to be a small step of progress, not of backslide into political or cultural atavism. I just want to save this little news item for attention and it may interest a few people here.
As Le Monde (who else) reports, Senegal, the west African country, builds its first solar power plant, a small 20 MW utility project in Bokhol, a community (county) near the north border of Sengal, along the borders of the river Senegal.
This may appear to be just a trifle but I think it is in fact big news, in a small way. Senegal, a moderately stable, islamic, multiparty democracy, is just a blip on humanity-s blacklist of carbon producing polluters. But it is right out in the frontline of countries on which the impact of climate change falls hardest, situated as it is in the Sahel, at the southern shore of the Sahara. In that climate zone, the Sun also shines a lot. Today, electricity generation in Senegal is nearly fully fossil fuel based. This is absurd — burning the concentrated sunshine from hundred millions ago when more than enough (some would say too much) sunshine falls right onto them everyday already. And the fossil fuel they use, they have to pay dearly for; they dont have oil (so far) and are not an industrialised nation that can easily pay export value for import value. What is more logical and plain as light of day as that they use their own abundant renewable energy ressources?
It-s electricity for 180000 people (that currently dont have any). It-s grid based. There is an entire discussion between people that one encounters on what the best renewable development strategy is, whether it should be “traditional” utility, grid centered like this or dispersed off grid. I cant with authority say anything to that. This development is planned by a French (of course) society, as Le Monde reports, that says it is planning and building utility cale solar plants all across West African countries for a hoped sum of 600 MW by 2020. The project appears to be financially supported by the usual arrangements in development projects but also to a significant part supported by local, Senegalese capital:
Le groupe français Vinci Energies assurera la construction et la gestion de la centrale. La Banque africaine de développement (BAD) a organisé le montage financier du projet. « A travers la Caisse des dépôts et consignations sénégalaise, notre pays participe au financement du projet à hauteur de 33 % et bénéficiera des retombées », indique Mamadou Lamine Sylla, le directeur des études, de la stratégie et des financements de la Caisse.
I found the Environmental Impact Study of the project, it is here as a pdf. In English, somewhat unexpected. They have 3000 hours of sunshine per year. It is in a formerly agriculturally used strip along the river, they say “formerly”, since for several years, rains have ceded so much that the land, which is now isolated trees over zero ground cover (no grass) does not support even pastoral uses anymore. Their land is communal and the facility is supposed to support, by providing energy, the local agricultural economy. They say they have hope that the facility by itself will help to allow ground vegetation to reamin on the land and will in the future eventually allow co-use — horticulture in between the solar panels. But thats dreams.
So far as it, it will run up Senegal’s degree of energy independence — nationally they plan at 20% renewable energy by 2020, mostly through solar photovoltaic. I have to assume that is only electric and not including transport, but still. Where will the US be in four years? The country that in a very direct way is very largely co-responsible for the loss of agricultural capacity of the lands the Senegalese are now putting under the panels?
But I know nothing about the area, nothing about the Senegal. What I do know is that this little news item is a sign of a changing world. The world is going to decarbonise, whether the US prefers to close its eyes to it or not. Whatever way the West African countries take, it is just plain out common sense that they make use of and develop the energy they have, in the forms they’ll develop for their situation.
Its not a big-news item, but it is more worthy of attention than many contentless non-news about what someone again said in a speech somewhere today, forgotten tomorrow. Today to say it gives hope would be too much, it is just a little thing but it is at least not bad news, and that alone in our times is good news.
And it-s from Senegal! (There-s more in the world than one could ever dream up!)