Solar Photovoltaic Development in West Africa Will Face Million-Ton Waste Challenges, and Off-Grid Systems Will Dominate

[hunter]

1. Off-grid solar power systems using lead-acid batteries were a catastrophe...

... so much so that many NGOs stopped funding them.

Inevitably they ended up with people, including children, cracking open the failed batteries, dumping the acid on the ground, and melting down the lead-arsenic alloy in open furnaces to sell or use for other purposes, which poisoned entire neighborhoods.

Modern lithium battery systems are hardly any better. It all ends up as toxic waste when systems fail.

Everyone, just by virtue of being human, deserves a connection to an electric grid. Nothing is simpler. The most complicated part of the grid from the consumer's perspective is paying the electric bill. The bulk of an electric grid is made of materials that are readily available, extremely durable, non-toxic, and easily recyclable -- concrete, ceramics, steel, and aluminum.

My great grandparent's ranch, which is still about as far away as you can get from a Wal-Mart in the 48 states, got electricity as part of FDR's New Deal.

If it's possible to bring electricity from distant hydroelectric power plants to a place like my great grandparent's ranch it's possible to bring electricity anywhere, even remote villages in Africa.