ABSTRACT: CNRS COLLOQUIUM ON MODELLING AND GEOTHERAPY FOR GLOBAL CHANGES
14-17 MAY 1991, LYON, FRANCE
Building a non-Carbon energy culture. E.G.Matthews

1. Third world energy
This is the abstract of a non-academic person who has worked with biogas and solar energy in Africa as a sideline while teaching English in rural areas in Kenya, Botswana and Nigeria.
I believe we have to encourage the adoption of a non-carbon energy culture. That is, every new and existing use of energy must be assessed to see if it can be supplied by technology which does not add carbon-dioxide to the atmosphere.
The strategy of altering the world's energy usage away from carbon-based fuels must include the so-called Third World. At present the industrial countries are moving extremely slowly towards a realisation that burning carbon fuels is bad for us. But in those countries which live on the edge of poverty governments are doing little thinking about these problems. All the money has to go into maintaining conventional systems. Moreover, western corporations are eager to sell them conventional energy systems. In addition, people fear that unconventional systems, such as wind, solar and biomass, are inferior because they are not much used in the west. There is almost no money for independent development of technology.
The pre-colonial and pre-industrial societies used methods of cooking which are still in use. Their smaller populations used firewood. When fewer people were taking it the forests could supply people's needs without damage, in a sustainable way. But as populations have increased the forests cannot supply enough wood for firewood and charcoal. The result is desertification and the need to use alternative fuels. Some people (those with money) in the former colonial countries are beginning to use such fuels as kerosene and bottled gas. This is unwise because these fuels have limited supply lives and will have to be replaced when the reserves run out and their prices rise. It is also unwise for such countries as Kenya where-oil derived fuels must be imported. There is a possibility that they will gradually become as addicted to oil fuels as the western countries are.
I would like to see a policy by which solar based energy provides all the everyday needs, leaving fossil carbon based fuels to be used only for special occasions - perhaps investment.
Biogas, the most suitable biomass fuel
In rural areas biogas has a great deal of potential as a renewable biomass fuel. Its main advantage is that it converts waste materials which are common and in good supply into gas and fertiliser. The fertiliser makes the process more valuable than alcohol production. Moreover biogas will benefit people in the villages, whereas alcohol is intended for motor vehicles and is less likely to produce fertiliser. (Some alcohol processes use more energy for distillation than they produce as fuel). Alcohol production can also take up land needed for food crops.
My experience has been gained while teaching in secondary schools in Kenya, Botswana and Nigeria. In Kenya and Nigeria I have built and operated biogas plants for converting farm wastes into fuel. In Nigeria (1977-80) I did my cooking on the gas for several years, thus proving that the fuel can be used as the main source of energy. In Kenya I ran a kerosene refrigerator (1972-5) and had a gas lamp as well as doing part of my cooking. I have written a paper# on the design of the apparatus I used, intended to persuade British volunteers teaching or working in tropical countries to build biogas plants in order to let people see it working.
However, I have had little success in getting others to build the plant. I believe that I should have shown it to women, as it is women who suffer the main burden of finding fuel and cooking on inefficient wood or charcoal fires. One of my students in Cameroon has said he will build one. I wait for news of his success.
2. Wind
There are a large number of sites for wind power in the world. I have observed one in Kenya and have written an outline article # of a method of making use of it. Unlike biogas this is a large scheme which might need the assistance of bodies like the World Bank, and certainly the Kenyan government. I myself haven't discovered how to interest people of this kind. The largest wind power construction company in Britain has shown no interest.
Wind power in Kenya would be a supplement and complement to hydroelectricity and a substitute for imported fossil fuels. It would benefit the urban population rather than the rural people - but could be a source of income for the rural people living in the windy areas.
3. Solar Electricity
It would be nice if solar electricity could be a lot cheaper than it is at present. Could a research program as well funded as the nuclear program give us cheap photovoltaics? I don't know. Photovoltaic set ups are in use in remote places and compete well if the cost of bringing in diesel is high. They don't compete against conventional mains electricity.
If a sense of urgency about carbon build up were to be felt by governments and people a tax on carbon would make solar power look better. The tax could be considered the cost of carbon damage which should be borne by the users of carbon fuels. However, it is unlikely that any government would set such a tax high enough to make carbon fuel as expensive as existing solar power. So we need to find cheaper and more efficient conversion of sunlight to useful power.
A carbon tax could be used to fund research and development into non-carbon fuels.
I have supplied a short paper describing my experiments with solar energy.# At my home an investment of about £600 has produced electricity worth £4.24 in the last 12 months. I was away for about 6 weeks which would bring the total up to £5.00. This is not a competitive rate of return. Even if the consumer's price of electricity doubled it would not be attractive.
Solar electricity may have a much larger role in future if its cost can be brought down, and the prices of carbon fuels made to reflect their true costs. If it became a cheap base power source the energy could be distributed as hydrogen for use in vehicles and other end users.
Solar cooking
Solar cooking has a problem. People generally eat in the evening but the solar heat is strongest at mid day. I have never seen any serious effort in Africa to introduce solar cooking. I and some friends built two types of solar cooker in Botswana. We used them once to test them. I think it is unlikely to succeed. Cooking with a gas flame is much easier to learn.
The Problem of visiting architects and other experts
The use of solar water heating is growing though curiously slowly. Many buildings are designed by architects from the North (or trained there) and they don't appreciate the ease of solar water heating, so don't specify it. The result is buildings which use electrically heated water. If the electricity depends on oil fuel this is a totally unnecessary generator of carbon dioxide. Even if the electricity is generated by water power, as it is in Uganda and Kenya, it is still a waste to use electricity for heating water when the sun is available. The electricity should be used for lighting and turning motors where its qualities cannot be substituted.
The same problem is true of wind power. I once came across an architect who specified a diesel pump at a health centre site with excellent wind every day from 11.00 a.m. until sunset. His excuse was that the site was too far above the water. He had misread the contours and thought the building was 4000 feet above sea level. It was, but Lake Victoria was only 30 feet below. In the same area visiting western "experts" failed to realise that the wind in this region was predictable and not like British wind - variable. So another set of diesel pumps were specified. Visiting experts often don't have time to know the area and give bad advice as a result.
Although these are small quantities in the context of the total world emission of carbon dioxide, every decision of this kind adds to the "mind-set" or cultural habit of continuing to use carbon-emitting energy.
4.World Info#
I am demonstrating a HyperCard arrangement (for the Apple Macintosh computer) of historical, political and ecological information intended for use in schools and colleges. It includes a short article on climate change and possible solutions.