Re: Zardari's Younger Guard Shahbaz Sharif Shall Now Distribute Solar Lamps... ...Instead of Overcoming Electricity Problem...::::???Wow!
Oh come on people, I don't like any political party, but can we at least use some common sense?
These solar lamps, if made of good construction, will be a good benefit to our society. Come on, don't we all face enough load-shedding to realise the benefit of this? In fact this is a lot better than laptops, since it will help everyone.
Poor people have to burn wood and coal, which creates dangerous smoke and doesn't provide enough light, this way people can have some nice bright smokeless light, especially so that kids can study at night.
If done correctly, this will be a good plus for us, we have loads of bright-sun-hours that we can utilise. There are some NGOs that I know that already working on this in Poor African countries.
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As for emulating solar industry in Germany, that's a laugh. Germany has an EXTREMELY strong economy, they are supporting the entire EU single handedly, that's why they can splurge on wind and solar, these things provide dividend very late and after a *lot* of investment, definitely *NOT* a model for a poor country like us.
And it's laughable to compare this solar lamps, totally different thing. I don't know whether Punjab could do it on it's own anyways (isn't this a federal matter?) but it can't possibly work, Germany gave *massive* subsidies for people to put solar panel on their houses, that's why it became feasible, you think we can afford such subsidies? Our govt can't even fulfill it's utility store subsidies!
Also, solar lamps cost 4x than solar plant, are you crazy? A solar lamp will cost ~$10 (okey make it $20 with our rishwat mafia,) what about Solar setup costs? First you have to buy a solar panel, even cheapest ans smallest chinese version costs ~$150 that can only run a couple of bulbs, plus that you have to buy entire UPS+battery system, which is around ~50k rupees (basically solar panel system is like UPS, except that it charges it's battery with solar panel, not main line).
Do the maths man, solar lamps are much cheaper in the short run. Besides, we don't have the economy to promote solar panels, like Kenya is doing (their economy is doing *much* better than ours, did you know our factories, especially textiles factories, are moving there from Faisalabad? shame on us). I think solar lamps are a good starting option. Besides one one the benefit of solar starts getting into our brains, maybe we will have solar craze just like with the generator or ups craze. (Btw, what we need more is solar heaters and geysers, save on sui gas)
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I know it's popular to hate on PML-N, but solar lamps is a good idea for us, especially in summer months, when we will have full day load-shedding. Now let's hope they keep the rishwat to a minimum, and pro
