General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums70% of Mongolian nomads now have solar power
http://www.exposingtruth.com/70-of-mongolian-nomads-now-have-solar-power/By installing portable solar home systems in the gers (tents made of yaks wool and felt), they have made life much easier for people where the sun shines about 250 days a year.
The main things this electricity is used for are improved food refrigeration, cell phones usage and televisions to watch the weather forecast, which is essential in the life of a shepherd. They no longer have to make a long trek to a nearby village to charge their telephone.
The cell phone has been revolutionary for the life of nomadic people, giving them greater connectivity and organization. Internet usage also increased by 1000% between 2000 (1.1%) and 2010 (11.3%) Often, the children are sent away to boarding schools and now, for the first time, the parents are able to charge their phones from home and keep in touch regularly.
Shandris
(3,447 posts)I could get into a lightly-powered tent life. I wonder how much these things run?
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Warpy
(111,339 posts)but so far, not development, drilling, or industrialization.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Warpy
(111,339 posts)I saw a TED talk on this very thing last night, the developing world leapfrogging over technologies that got the developed world where it is to more efficient, smaller technologies like cell phones instead of land lines, wireless instead of DSL or cable, and small scale solar instead of an electrical grid.
I really love the satellite dish in that picture, all the comforts of home--at home, wherever they've had to put the home. Must be a bugger to aim, though.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)The tech industry might even embrace this phenomenon and start looking to beta-test their stuff in the Global South.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)the the internet boom like 15-20 years ago. Now those jobs are gone. But at least they didn't poison the land so badly during the 20 century.
eppur_se_muova
(36,289 posts)No need for developing countries to recapitulate the history of developed countries, including all their wasteful mistakes and inefficient older technologies.
Of course, he invented communications satellites, so you didn't have to explain the relative costs of an uplink vs copper wires through the wilderness to him.