RANT: Eskom the Water Hog

Much ado is made about how coal-fired power stations around the world are deemed by climate change scientists to be the number one contributor to global warming and, therefore, potential climate change. 

Much ado is also made about the obvious related air pollution issues resulting from coal-fired power stations.

Much ado is also made about the fact that, give or take a hundred years or so, coal is simply not a renewable source of energy and, therefore, cannot be considered a sustainable source of energy. 

Much ado is made against coal as an energy source for all the right reasons.

Simply put: it's a dirty, unsustainable source of energy for humanity going forward.

But another huge ill befalls the environment when coal is used to power energy: water.

The Blue Gold of the 21st century is used in phenomenal, almost unfathomable quantities in order for coal to be generated into electricity. The amounts of water needed are nothing short of stunning - and not in a good way.

I have read an excellent study released by Greenpeace Africa, who have their headquarters here in Johannesburg, and entitled "Water Hungry Coal: Burning South Africa's water to produce electricity." It's a scathing and detailed exposé of just how much water is used by the South African government-owned electricity utility, Eskom.



Below is a brilliant (and scary) graphic from this PDF article showing just how much water is consumed when coal is used to make electricity (save and then click on to enlarge if needed):

It's frightening. And this in a country that is considered 'water-scarce' by the World Meteorological Organisation and other expert groups.

Ah, yes, Eskom - the bête noir of all environmentalists and green energy activists in South Africa, myself firmly included amongst them. Firmly in the pocket of the coal and nuclear lobbies in this country, it is all-powerful and do-very-little in South Africa's energy efficiency and sustainability stakes. 



A greenwasher of note, with token efforts thus far at a solar farm, a wind farm, and energy efficient geyser and bulb replacement initiatives, Eskom is said to emit more CO₂ than the countries of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Switzerland combined! Makes me very proud to live (and use electricity) in South Africa.

With this excellent article, Greenpeace Africa makes the final point that all of us who care about the environment make all the time, again and again: the future can only be in renewable energies. It is not in 19th-century technology like coal or (heaven forbid) nuclear. 

Never mind that electricity from coal pollutes our air and puts the climate future of this planet in peril, it can literally make us die of thirst.

Do you get my point? 

RANT: Makes Me Fracking Mad

"Fracking Gets Backing" screamed the newspaper headline from lampposts here in Johannesburg yesterday. That made my blood boil, and not for the first time on this issue of fracking that has become so divisive in this maddening country in which I live.

According to Wikipedia, "Induced hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracking, commonly known as fracking, is a technique used to release petroleum, natural gas (including shale gas, tight gas and coal seam gas), or other substances for extraction.This type of fracturing creates fractures from a wellbore drilled into reservoir rock formations." The fracking in question here is for supposedly significant amounts of natural gas that South Africa has in its semi-desert region known as the Karoo.

Below is a simple schematic showing how fracking essentially operates:



Hmmmm...all that underground water seems to be in the way of all the drilling and surge in release of natural gas...this cannot be a good thing.

More about the debacle from a South African perspective, as from the www.savingwater.co.za site:
"Speaking at the Shale Gas Conference in Johannesburg [held in July 2011], chairman of Treasure Karoo Action Group (TKAG) Jonathan Deal said there was not enough evidence at hand that the potential benefits of fracturing could outweigh the attached risks. “At this juncture of our history, with climate warming on the increase and increased threats to water supplies it would make corporate and social sense to invest research and development funds in seeking renewable energy alternatives, rather than pursuing finite fossil fuels,” said Deal.

Yes, we're back to that tired, tired, tired refrain by those of us who care about this planet and the future sustianability thereof that our energy future SHOULD NOT rest on fossil fuels like natural gas.

For anoyone remotely still in doubt as to the madness of engaging in this type of drilling for natural gas, I defy them to see the following documentary:



"Can you light your water on fire?" reads the alarming, wry caption. Indeed.

And then tell me you still think fracking is a rollicking good idea for energy.

I am cursed to be living in a country with such plentiful renewable energy potential, whether from solar, wind or wave, and yet that keeps investing in malignant, unsustainable energy from coal, nuclear and, now, natural gas.

South Africa is fast becoming the 'environmental Canada' of Africa - such a 'nice guy image', the feel-good 'peacemaker', even great environmental laws, and yet a big, fat polluting behemoth that deserves nothing but contempt from other nations at least making an attempt at more renewable energy.

Fracking gets backing? But, of course - after all, I do live in a corrupt, facile country that says all the right things to the world but screws its own citizens to the hilt back home. Even when it comes to how we get our lights on.

Do you get my point?

RANT: The Great South African EsCON

It's taken me this long to get over my EXTREME ANGER over a dirty little deal South Africa recently signed up...

Yet again the people of South Africa have been royally stiffed by the national electricity utility company.

Eskom or, by its rightful name, EsCON saw fit to request an international loan from none other than the IMF in order to finance what will be the fourth-largest coal-fired power station in the world.

A coal-fired power station. The fourth-largest of its kind in the world. With a loan from the IMF.

The mind BOGGLES at just how many bad angles those statements conjure up...

Let me deconstruct just how bad this deal is for South Africa and the environment:

1. Climate What?: Whilst the South African government proudly trumpets its 'commitments' to global warming and climate change, it acts as ringmaster and cheerleader for this deal it brokered between its reviled parastatal, EsCON, and the IMF. Experts agree that coal-fired power stations are the number one cause of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Numero Uno. And here we are, Africa's biggest economy, pumping more money into this dirty, filthy technology. With the name of Medupi. To the tune of USD3.75-billion to be exact.

It's greenwashing all over again, typical of governments the world over.

2. Old Hag, Will Travel: Coal-fired power stations are basically updated 19th-century technology. However you dress them and modernize them, they're still filthy and decrepit hags pumping out huge amounts of air pollution and countless other environmental impacts.

3. Renewable Que? Where the hell is this country's REAL and TANGIBLE commitment to alternative energy sources like solar, wind, wave and geothermal, all of which South Africa would possess in plentiful supply? Nowhere, of course. We'd rather shackle ourselves to a 'proven' polluting and frankly filthy energy source like coal, thereby relegating us to never-has-beens in the new global green economy. Such is the power and clout of the coal industry lobby in this country (with the nuclear crowd another bunch of thugs hogging the energy debate in SA), not to mention the collusion between the government, EsCON and major industrial entities that are known to get their electricity in this country (their DIRTY electricity, please note) for below cost. A collusion unchanged since deep in the bad old apartheid era, by the way.

Oh, and a pledge to use some of this money (about R230-million or thereabouts according to the con..ahem...agreement with the IMF) for 'renewable technologies' is frankly in bad taste. It's abit like the biggest loan shark in town loaning a heroin addict $1000 for his heroin habit and telling the addict they must set $75 aside for their rehab. Uh huh. You may call that a 'concession', I call it patronizing to renewable energy.

4. Putting out the Fires: Reading the comments of ministers and EsCON in the media one was given the unmistakable message that unless this Medupi power station is built the entire electricity infrastructure of this country would collapse by next week. Or tomorrow. In fact, make that yesterday. Where the hell does planning come into all of this, you incompetent idiots? It's the oldest, most boring political trick in the book - make a situation seem so bad, so untenable, so utterly URGENT that you will make people desperately accept any old nonsense you feed them, including making us more reliant than ever on dirty, outdated technology. At the very least it's sheer incompetence and bad management. At worst it's...well...

5. Banana Republic - Proof 1: The money has always been there, the scope of South Africa's energy needs has always been known, yet everyone runs around like headless nincompoops insisting that coal energy is the ONLY thing that has ANY chance of staving off the immediate return of South Africa to the Iron Age. And all this nonsense about "how much South Africa has grown since 1994" and "what a surprise" it's been to the government and EsCON is a pile of crap. These lies must stop. Our real GDP each year has barely surpassed 3% per annum, whatever bunch of economic data the government throws at us. This is hardly the People's Republic of China or India in terms of growth...

Yes, more people have electricity these days. Yes, the SA population is growing larger. Big deal. Boo hoo. Where was all the planning? Where were all the contingency plans based on projected demographic and economic growth rates? Nowhere, because incompetent fat cats were too busy lining their pockets at EsCON whilst the government chose to do nothing and this country's coal industry looked on rubbing their dirty hands in glee.

6. Banana Republic - Proof 2: Where there's an IMF loan, you can bet your bottom dollar there will be corruption. Or, in this instance, your bottom 3.75-billion dollars. There have been widespread reports in the country's media and abroad that the governing ANC (or members thereof) will stand to make up to R1-billion (about 2.75% of the total loan amount) what with its close ties to the chief construction company involved in this project. But, of course. Why shouldn't the head honchos in the ruling party not skim the cream off the top of this lucrative deal? It is for the 'better' of the country and they are the ones 'brokering' the deal. Right? Um...no, wrong. The ANC has been in power for too long and acts as such. In fact, it acts like most governments in power.

7. Bring in Da Mafia: Number 7 is such a magic number and so I have left the best for last. Not only does this country see fit to build the fourth-largest coal-fired power station in the world but...wait for it...we will do so with money from the International Mafia Fund! Hurrah! I think the fact we have 'secured' this money from the IMF angers me almost as much as having yet another huge polluting power station in the countryside. I put the word secure in parentheses for dramatic effect, because there's no such thing as 'security' when one is dealing with the biggest legal multilateral Mafia organization in the world.

The IMF, the most destructive, anti-society, anti-liberty, anti-democracy bunch of bastards in the post-WW2 era, has finally gotten its grubby claws right into the flesh of the Rainbow Nation. Where the IMF and its economic henchmen are let in, they never leave without huge socio-political and human rights costs to the host, never mind the ENORMOUS interest on loans this particular Mafia family always make. Just ask Argentina, circa 2002.

The South African government even had the nerve to declare very proudly how South Africa has never requested a loan from the IMF in the post-apartheid era (i.e. post-1994). Great. Thanks so much. And now, in the midst of a global recession that still doesn't let up, you choose to invite the biggest wolf of all into our lair. And you're proud of that? What a bunch of cretins.

With this deal South Africa has whored itself out to two very dangerous clients: meet Dirty Coal and the International MaFiosi.

I cannot yet decide which of these two will prove more costly to this country in the years to come.

Do you get my point?