On Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 12:08 PM, Phares Kariuki <pkariuki@gmail.com> wrote:
Solomon, We actually can afford it, we are paying for it anyway. We are generating our electricity from diesel, which is one of the most expensive ways of generating electricity in this day and age. The only hurdle is initial capital and as has been demonstrated severally, there is sufficient money in the hands of the nation, we just need proper securities system to harness it. A bond can be floated to finance this kind of thing, and the repayments can be the savings made from not using *VERY* expensive diesel. Donor funding for this kind of thing is also more than available. Further from this, instead of investing in more diesel generators, GoK can invest in wind mills. We can also attract local investors, to run them independently and keep the returns. Venture capital funds can invest in these sort of companies, and if the venture capital funds are properly managed etc, they can attract funds from insurance companies etc.
So far we are in agreement...
End of day? We suffer because of silly policy, the money is there, we just need to create proper channels to fund the finances.
Have you studied the 'silly policy'? Note: policy and implementation are handled differently by government. I think we need a Tuesday talk on "communicating with government":-)
Someone once said, the role of government is governance, not business, IMHO, GoK should keep away from Kengen, KPLC etc, and focus on making it easy for local firms to invest in such. Poor governance in the finance sector etc keeps the venture capital, private equity funds away from the country. Money is not a store of value, but a means of exchange, so we should never be sitting on it. But I digress, point is, with the will, we can do it. I totally see David's point on this, it's silly that we can't implement this as .ke.
Sometimes I think we are misled to place too much faith on VCs, especially African versions. Sure, any VC only need announce $$$ held by mysterious foreign investors and we go running towards. Here, they tend to be vehicles for private take-over of public resources (read: corrupted Angel Funds concept) Imagine a situation all resources were managed by private interests? This is what collapsed out there and governments (USG, European et. al.) are now returning with failed businesses 'rescure' packages. And we here we are asking to be one full phase cycle behind global developments. Isn't it is always much, much, much easier to blame government that take the very difficult but constructive engagement route that makes meaningful change at the end of the day? On this part we differ! Alex
On Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 10:45 AM, solomon kariri <solomonkariri@gmail.com> wrote:
I don't think it would have been possible for us as a nation to harness the power. We are currently undergoing a severe food crisis, we are short of a basic need, how can we make attempts at a secondary one. Furthermore harnessing it as a country would have probably cost three times the much it will cost the Dutch, for reasons so obvious to all of us. The only thing we can do is hope that things will change with time and that we will all accept change before it changes us. Then, that way, the risk of making decisions for such great investments will be quite low and secure.
On 4/4/09, Steve Muchai <smuchai@gmail.com> wrote:
On Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 2:20 AM, Tony White <tony.mzungu@gmail.com> wrote:
*very* good to be back!
same here. I'm skunked! Last few days without the list were awful.
I also believe in renewable energy - but we have to be careful in our calculations. There is an 'energy' cost associated with every technology - eg. the cost to produce, transport, and install the wind generators (and that includes the energy cost in producing the materials they are made from (eg. steel)). That has to be deducted from the energy produced during the expected lifetime of the generators.
Right.
The same calculation also needs to be made, whether wind power, solar power, hydroelectric power, geothermal power, wave power, tidal power....
My personal 'gut' feeling is that our best prospect is geothermal power. For most countries, this is not an option - hence the concentration on solar and wind - but we have our beautiful, seismically active, rift valley!
Totally agree. The one cost I've seen you miss, IMHO, is the cost attached to transmission. Which is why, while totally agreeing with you about geothermal generation, I think wind/solar combi would be good for "local" power production. I'm thinking of a few hundred households out there, I mean really out there. It would be really costly to link these folks to the grid, but they could be well served by a smallish wind plant?
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-- Solomon Kariri,
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-- With Regards,
Phares Kariuki
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