Coal fired power stations

Greenpeace at it again

 My lunchtime news reported yesterday that Greenpeace Africa dumped 5 tons of coal at the headquarters of our electricity supply generator ESKOM.

They were protesting against the construction of (reportedly) two of the worlds largest coal fired power plants, the Medupi power station (4800mw on line from 2012) and the Kusile power station (also 4800mw on line from 2014) and six new nuclear reactors.

That’s a lot of megawatts.

My first thought was who’s going to clean this mess up, perhaps the residents from one of the local unelectrified squatter camps could do with some free fuel on these cold Highveld winter nights.

Secondly, we need the power, we’ve managed just fine these last 3 years since the rolling blackouts (which were actually a result of poor maintenance scheduling than lack of capacity) but we are very close to demand exceeding supply.

And finally that the next time that ‘load shedding’ is required could we switch off the supply to these bunnyhuggers properties first, I’m sure that while they are sitting in the candlelight of their freezing cold homes that they can console themselves with the ‘fact’ that they’ve saved a polar bear somewhere.

16 thoughts on “Coal fired power stations”

  1. Knowing the bunnyhugging brigade, they would be outraged if their own electricity was cut. Their self-appointed representatives Learjet it around the world at taxpayers’ expense from five star convention centre to five star convention centre hectoring the rest of us to change our ways. Hypocrites all.

    OZ

  2. I’ve never quite understood why those who keep telling us that we must ‘cut back’ aren’t living quietly in a cave somewhere, growing their own crops, hunting their own food (protected species excepted of course), making their own clothes, and sufficing with a bit of firewood for heat and tallow for light. If they did that they wouldn’t have the time, or the energy to dictate to the rest of us how we should live…

    … I suspect that after a very short while they might then not have the inclination to try to turn the clock back to prehistoric conditions.

  4. O Zangado :

    Harrumph! There is nothing prehistoric about living in a cave. :-)

    OZ

    There’s plenty ‘prehistoric’ about the sort of caves I’d like to consign the bunny-tree-hugging mob to!

  7. Soutie, don’t you know that development in Africa must be ‘sustainable?’ Africans are, on no account, to be allowed to have the same benefits that are enjoyed in the ‘West,’ brought about through the general supply and ready availability of cheap electricity. Africans are required to enjoy a sustainable impoverished lifestyle – the people in the air-conditioned Landcruisers say so.

    Good piece.

  8. For example:

    London’s liberal Guardian newspaper was aghast to learn that the World Bank’s Biocarbon Fund had arranged to pay European “entrepreneurs” $1 million to establish a system under which 60,000 Kenyans would restrict themselves to farming under rigidly controlled, inefficient, “sustainable” techniques. For that they will receive $1.4 million over 20 years.

    That’s right, the beneficent World Bank will enrich more Europeans so 60,000 Kenyans can receive $23.83 apiece for 20 years of drudgery, poverty and misery – a princely $1.19 a year.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/28/the-uns-climate-of-desperation/?page=all

  9. Morning all

    We recently arranged a bakkie load (about 1 ton) of horse manure for Quest school’s new vegetable garden, perhaps I should arrange something similar for these Greenpeace chaps (for their organic gardens of course ;))

    Looking at this map, it would appear that our contribution to the carbon debate (and that of the entire southern hemisphere) is negligible!

    So, to misquote Buzz Lightyear “More electricity and beyond!”

  10. How to fudge the numbers: Make one category large enough to include the UK, and Russia…

    It’s also edifying to note that the level of CO2 emissions correlates strongly with levels of prosperity…

  11. Why can these “green” idiots not undertand that they cannot help developing countries by such actions? It is so patronising and neo-colonialist. I hope the locals did help themselves to all the coal, Soutie.

  12. Um, not quite, Bravo – Aussie prosperity beats the UK into a cocked hat (which has reduced my UK-based pension by more than 30% – sob!) 😥

  14. Bravo – if the map plotted tons per head of population, I think we’d come out rather badly! 🙂

  15. Considering that most of our Power Stations have already been converted to the most modern “gas-firing” technology then I would suggest the map is not exactly right!

    For some reason foreigners continue to believe that we are still using coal to fire most of our power plants which is very, very wrong. out of date actually.

    We have spent many years selling Coal to Japan, China and India so as to lay the blame on them for being the worst polluters of all 🙂

Add your Comment