When someone thinks you are wrong on the internet, they waste no time telling you — and smirking when they think you have egg on your face.
I’ve experienced it many times but perhaps never as intensely as after a recent column about minerals & energy minister Gwede Mantashe’s irrational defence of "cleaner coal" as a power source for the future.
My Twitter timeline was clogged with responses in defence of Mantashe. Don’t get me wrong. I love a good debate, but only a fact-based one.
So what do the Mantashe defenders and coal apologists use as "proof" of their case? That developed countries "moved too quickly" away from coal-fired power stations and Europe ran out of energy in recent months.
I feel like I have to talk slowly when I explain things like this to climate denialists.
Yes, coal-fired power stations are "instant on" sources of electricity. But they have a huge number of negatives — not least of which is how indefensibly polluting they are. SA is the eighth largest polluter in the world, while Eskom is the biggest emitter of sulphur dioxide on the planet.
It tells you everything you need to know about the ANC government’s lack of interest that the lead ministry on climate change is environment, forestry & fisheries, thankfully led by one of the only competent ministers, Barbara Creecy.
So here is the solution: buy more batteries and upgrade your storage capacity. It’s that simple
When climate envoys visited the country last month, Mantashe couldn’t find the time to meet these people who care so deeply about the environment that they are willing to give SA cheap money to save the planet.
Those rich nations have already offered an indicative grant allocation of between $200m and $500m. This is not much in terms of the R400bn Eskom needs to break its crippling debt cycle, but not a bad start — unless you are an ANC benefactor with coal-mining interests, or the energy minister whose sense of priorities is warped towards party favours instead of the health of his own citizens.
So here is the solution: buy more batteries. It’s that simple. If you want to replace ageing, uninsurable, pollution-spewing coal power stations with cheap, easy-to-finance renewable power sources (that also means wind, people, not just solar), then upgrade your storage capacity. Like when you buy a battery booster or power bank for your smartphone.
There’s this guy from Pretoria called Elon Musk who is making giant batteries for Australia, for instance.
Not only are these new batteries a better way to spend your money, but they’re insurable. Obviously Mantashe hasn’t noticed this nuance that so drastically affects his ministry’s area of expertise — you can no longer insure coal power stations. If you have a R2bn explosion at Medupi, there’s no way to get that money back.
You could’ve bought a lot of batteries for that.
Shapshak is editor-in-chief of Stuff Studios and publisher of Scrolla.Africa
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