10%: Are You Able To Cut It? Huh? Punk?

So Eskom has laid down the law: 10% or else. Do you feel efficient? Punk? Well there is a very, very simple way to cut 10% or more. Easy. Want to know what it is? When you get home from work, do not turn on the TV, do not cook food, do not take a hot (or even cold) shower. Do not pass go, just go to bed.

Realistically though, with a little bit of consistent discipline, 10% ought to be a snip. We will probably realise just how inefficient (read: wasteful) we are. Ne.

All of us are lazy when it comes to leaving lights, computers and other gadgets on. The Times has a great headline which expresses this lack of efficiency quite ironically:
The Lights Are On But Nobody's Home. Excellent !-)

UK's take on SA's Power Cuts (GUARDIAN)

Power cuts a good sign, sceptical South Africans told

The South African government has told millions of people left in the dark by rolling power cuts that have swept the country over the past week, and which are likely to go on for years, to look on the bright side.
The blackouts are the result of surging demand for power caused by a booming economy, it says. But as the lights go off more frequently and for longer periods, the national mood has darkened.

Hospitals have lost power in the middle of operations, prompting doctors to warn it is only a matter of time before someone dies as a result.
Huge traffic jams have clogged cities as traffic lights, known as "robots" in South Africa, cut out. Commuters in Pretoria set fire to six trains on Friday evening after services were delayed for two hours by the loss of power.

The sound of generators, part of the background noise of many African cities, can now also be heard in Johannesburg. Restaurants coping with up to thee power outages a day are emphasising the benefits of candlelit dinners.

Being South Africa, there's also the security issue. A Johannesburg woman was robbed with a gun pressed to her head because the electronic gate to her home would not open.

More.

Blackouts prompt scramble for renewable energy

ESKOM’s scramble to mitigate an electricity crisis of gargantuan proportions is likely to accelerate the diversification of the power utility’s energy mix and its move towards renewable energy sources.

“Solar is something that has a lot of potential and, given the power shortages now, the economics of it is swinging much more in favour of using solar energy. It still needs careful analysis but should be done urgently.”

For more of this Business Day article, go here.

NVDL: Solar isn't capable of providing that much energy. I'm not saying don't try, I'm just saying for the investment and the amount of energy gained, you're not going to dig SA out of its hole any time soon. Bio is a joke. Wind is similar to Solar. You get very little for something. Nuclear is the answer, but it takes a helluva long lead up time. Let's face it, we're in kak. So we have to accept the long term constraints and downscale. What does that mean? It means, Koo Koo, a lot of people must change their lifestyles. Go and change your lightbulbs, turn off lights and computers when you're not using them (common sense stuff like that) - make it a habit. Change how you consume energy. It means being conscious of what we do, and conscious of our impact on others. That's something we divorced ourselves from, making ourselves disconnected, and we've created a monster. It was a foolish and lazy way of living from he start.