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Useful introduction to African problems
Book Reviews
Portrait of a prol ific inventor Jose Goldemberg Edison - a biography. By Mathew Josephson; John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1992. THE problem with biographies in general is that the author falls in love with the person he is biographing and thus becomes utterly partial in his judgement of his character and actions. This is, in my view, the case with Josephson writing a voluminous biography of Edison (1847-1931). Thomas Alva Edison lived 84 years and did many things and this helps to explain the length of this 500-page biography. What one learns from it is that Edison was a very talented inventor and did not have a very pleasant personality and sometimes not very good judgement. He is credited with inventing the incandescent light although this claim has been the object of bitter lawsuits with competing inventors. What becomes clear in Josephson's book is that the state-of-the-art for the introduction of the incandescent light was ripe and several people arrived at solutions of the problem approximately at the same time. Edison probably had a better vision of the whole "electric system" that would go with lighting (generators, cables, switches, etc.) although he left to George Westinghouse the fundamental idea of using alternating currents for the transmission of electricity over large distances. To introduce electricity as a source of light competing therefore with the well-established gas industry was not easy and reminds us of the problems faced today by photovoltaic and wind machines competing with coal, oil, gas and nuclear (traditional ways of generating electricity). Edison liked to stress the importance of "accidents" in the systematic 58
empirical research in which he was very good and thorough and downplayed the role of discovery. In his words: "Discovery is not invention, and I dislike to see the two words confounded. A discovery is more or less in the nature of an accident. A man walks along the road intending to catch the train. On the way his foot kicks against something .and - he sees a gold bracelet imbedded in the dust. He has discovered that - certainly not invented it. He did not set out to fmd a bracelet, yet the value is just as great." Pasteur - another great man of the last century - who had a deep understanding of the mental processes of discovery, said, "Chance favors the mind that is prepared." Actually, those two men, Edison and Pasteur, had very contrasting careers: the first tried always to solve practical problems and used to brag that he did it for money although it is obvious from his biography that he was not really interested in money but in the challenge and "the fun of it" in the process of invention. In fact, Edison himself tried hard to become an entrepreneur and "capitalist" as Ford did later but never succeeded very well at that. Pasteur when asked by Napoleon III why he had never used any of his discoveries as a source of commercial profit replied that a true scientist would consider he "lowered himself by doing so". To make money by his discoveries, "a man of pure science would complicate his life and risk paralyzing his inventive faculties ..." Pasteur, in fact, deeply enjoyed seeing the immediate, practical effect of his ideas on men and things (and his discoveries were of immense commercial benefit to health, agriculture and to the production of wine) but nothing must be permitted to draw him away from experimentation. Despite his shortcomings Edison was a gifted inventor with immense prestige among the American people, and he was instrumental in bringing to age the use of electricity 100 years ago. In his lifetime he was granted more than one thousand patents for his inventions. _
Useful introduction to African problems Jose Goldemberg Energy Options for Africa - Environmentally Sustainable Alternatives. Edited and Introduced by Stephen Karekezi and Gordon A. Mackenzie; Zed Books Ltd. THIS interesting book is a collection of papers at an African Experts Meeting held in May 1992 in Nairobi (Kenya) organized by the UNEP in partnership with the African Energy Policy Research Network (AFREPREN) and the Foundation for Woodstove Dissemination (FWD). In the introduction, S. Karekezi and G.A. Mackenzie summarize the content of each presentation. The book says all the appropriate things regarding the dire consequences for the envirorunent of the present course of energy production and use and argues that Sub-Saharan Africa will not be able to mobilize the investments needed in a supply-oriented energy development strategy. Therefore, a new strategy is needed based on: 1. Innovative policy instruments, institutions and the incorporation of environmental costing; 2. Training, improved management and technology acquisition; 3. Mobilization of local and external fmancial resources; 4. Energy efficiency; 5. Increased supply of environmentally-benign modem fuels and energy technologies. It is hard to argue with any of these components and the book presents a number of success stories in Ghana and other countries including dissemination of improved woodstoves. I would argue however that the book does little to clarify for the reader how the new strategy will be converted into practical actions for
Energy for Sustainable Development. Volume 1 NO.1. May 1994
Book Reviews
the following reasons: 1. All the papers presented at the meeting (and included in the book) were prepared by African researchers or foreign experts but none by people in charge of the local utilities (electricty, oil and gas) which are ultimately responsible for supplying energy to the population. The possible exception is the paper of Ela Sadig Musa from the African Development Bank which differs appreciably from the others being supply-oriented. In this s~nse, the meeting was basically a meeting ofNGOs. One will have to reach governments to attain real success in implementing new strategies. 2. Mobilization of financial resources is a worn-out claim which has not been very successful in the past and will propab ly be even less successful in the future. 3. Finally, the approach confuses somewhat between the emphasis on disseminating improved woodstoves in Uganda and other countries and ideas of "leapfrogging" with technologies such as photovoltaics in Botswana and LPG in Ghana. Some of these rely on local financial resources and self-reliance others on external resources. It w~uld be useful to address this question more candidly.. Despite these shortcomings, th.e book is a useful introduction to African energy problems and deserves to be read with attention. _
Source book for students of energy Jose Goldemberg The Power Guide - an international catalogue of small scale energy equipment. Introduced by Wim Hulscher and Peter Fraenkel, Intermediate Technology Publications,
1994, 103-105 Southampton Row, London WCIB4HH. This is the second edition of a very useful book produced by TDG (Technology and Development Group of the University of Twente of the Netherlands) and Intermediate Technology Publications. It has grown from material used in courses in Rural Energy Planning and the Environment and Energy Management and Conser,:,ation in small and medium-scale Industries. It is organized in three parts: • socio-economic considerations, • guidelines to each type of energy technology (solar power, wind power, water power, biomass energy technology and internal combustion engines) and • a comprehensive list, by country, of manufacturers and their agents which takes up almost two-thirds of the book. In the Introduction, the role smallscale energy technologies can play, technical criteria for selection and cost-effectiveness are explained rather simply and unpretentiously. Although much has been said. of the importance of such technologies, progress has been disappointingly slow, in our view. In 1980, there were 3,000 kW of photovoltaic panels around the world and in 1992, 60,000 kW, spread out in maybe 10-20,000 installations, most of them used for water pumping. To keep the perspecti~re one could remind the readers that ill 1978 a team at the World Bank presented a compelling case for micro-irrigation on a huge scale using PV solar pumps. A goal of 10 million units was presented as ' 'appropriate' :' representing 10 percent of potential farming consumption, but still having a significant impact. . It is mentioned in the Introduction that perhaps 100,000 small wind generators are in use in the world for charging batteries, of which about half are in China (in addition to perhaps 2 million units in use worldw~de in the livestock regions of countries
like Australia, Argentina and South Africa). The important n~velty i~ wind power however is not ill the direction this book addresses itself to: it is taking place in prosperous regions of the world - Denmark and California - where "wind farms' made up of large units generate el~c tricity which is fed into the grI? About 3% of the electricity used In these areas comes from the wind, and Denmark intends to go up to 10% by the year 2000. . Biomass has indeed great potential as the book claims, but again here very significant progress is being made in the direction of large-scale use of biomass in urban water, cogeneration of heat and electricity and of course in ethanol production from sugarcane juice. One must mention here that all the successful alcohol distilleries in Brazil are large-scale operations and the attempts. to develop mini-distilleries have f~I1ed due to economic and technological reasons. One of the interesting chapters of the book is on internal combustion (IC) engines where good hints are given on "how to select an IC. engine" which responds to questions people out in rural areas of develo~ ing countries have to face. Interest In the use of vegetable oils in diesel engines is experiencing a rebirth and seems to be a promising technology. Finally, one should point out that - as the title of the book indicates The Power Guide deals with sources of energy supply and does not discuss at all end-uses of energy and the whole question of improvements i.n the efficiency of energy use. As IS well known, progess in this area is rather impressive and frequently o~e can achieve the same desired result In energy services with smaller energy inputs. All in all, however, The Powe.r Guide is very well presented and It is the book to be used by anyone giving courses on the subject or facing energy problems in rural areas. _ Jose Goldemberg is Professor at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Energy for Sustainable Development. Volume 1 No.1. May 1994
59
Portrait of a prol ific inventor Jose Goldemberg Edison - a biography. By Mathew Josephson; John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1992. THE problem with biographies in general is that the author falls in love with the person he is biographing and thus becomes utterly partial in his judgement of his character and actions. This is, in my view, the case with Josephson writing a voluminous biography of Edison (1847-1931). Thomas Alva Edison lived 84 years and did many things and this helps to explain the length of this 500-page biography. What one learns from it is that Edison was a very talented inventor and did not have a very pleasant personality and sometimes not very good judgement. He is credited with inventing the incandescent light although this claim has been the object of bitter lawsuits with competing inventors. What becomes clear in Josephson's book is that the state-of-the-art for the introduction of the incandescent light was ripe and several people arrived at solutions of the problem approximately at the same time. Edison probably had a better vision of the whole "electric system" that would go with lighting (generators, cables, switches, etc.) although he left to George Westinghouse the fundamental idea of using alternating currents for the transmission of electricity over large distances. To introduce electricity as a source of light competing therefore with the well-established gas industry was not easy and reminds us of the problems faced today by photovoltaic and wind machines competing with coal, oil, gas and nuclear (traditional ways of generating electricity). Edison liked to stress the importance of "accidents" in the systematic 58
empirical research in which he was very good and thorough and downplayed the role of discovery. In his words: "Discovery is not invention, and I dislike to see the two words confounded. A discovery is more or less in the nature of an accident. A man walks along the road intending to catch the train. On the way his foot kicks against something .and - he sees a gold bracelet imbedded in the dust. He has discovered that - certainly not invented it. He did not set out to fmd a bracelet, yet the value is just as great." Pasteur - another great man of the last century - who had a deep understanding of the mental processes of discovery, said, "Chance favors the mind that is prepared." Actually, those two men, Edison and Pasteur, had very contrasting careers: the first tried always to solve practical problems and used to brag that he did it for money although it is obvious from his biography that he was not really interested in money but in the challenge and "the fun of it" in the process of invention. In fact, Edison himself tried hard to become an entrepreneur and "capitalist" as Ford did later but never succeeded very well at that. Pasteur when asked by Napoleon III why he had never used any of his discoveries as a source of commercial profit replied that a true scientist would consider he "lowered himself by doing so". To make money by his discoveries, "a man of pure science would complicate his life and risk paralyzing his inventive faculties ..." Pasteur, in fact, deeply enjoyed seeing the immediate, practical effect of his ideas on men and things (and his discoveries were of immense commercial benefit to health, agriculture and to the production of wine) but nothing must be permitted to draw him away from experimentation. Despite his shortcomings Edison was a gifted inventor with immense prestige among the American people, and he was instrumental in bringing to age the use of electricity 100 years ago. In his lifetime he was granted more than one thousand patents for his inventions. _
Useful introduction to African problems Jose Goldemberg Energy Options for Africa - Environmentally Sustainable Alternatives. Edited and Introduced by Stephen Karekezi and Gordon A. Mackenzie; Zed Books Ltd. THIS interesting book is a collection of papers at an African Experts Meeting held in May 1992 in Nairobi (Kenya) organized by the UNEP in partnership with the African Energy Policy Research Network (AFREPREN) and the Foundation for Woodstove Dissemination (FWD). In the introduction, S. Karekezi and G.A. Mackenzie summarize the content of each presentation. The book says all the appropriate things regarding the dire consequences for the envirorunent of the present course of energy production and use and argues that Sub-Saharan Africa will not be able to mobilize the investments needed in a supply-oriented energy development strategy. Therefore, a new strategy is needed based on: 1. Innovative policy instruments, institutions and the incorporation of environmental costing; 2. Training, improved management and technology acquisition; 3. Mobilization of local and external fmancial resources; 4. Energy efficiency; 5. Increased supply of environmentally-benign modem fuels and energy technologies. It is hard to argue with any of these components and the book presents a number of success stories in Ghana and other countries including dissemination of improved woodstoves. I would argue however that the book does little to clarify for the reader how the new strategy will be converted into practical actions for
Energy for Sustainable Development. Volume 1 NO.1. May 1994
Book Reviews
the following reasons: 1. All the papers presented at the meeting (and included in the book) were prepared by African researchers or foreign experts but none by people in charge of the local utilities (electricty, oil and gas) which are ultimately responsible for supplying energy to the population. The possible exception is the paper of Ela Sadig Musa from the African Development Bank which differs appreciably from the others being supply-oriented. In this s~nse, the meeting was basically a meeting ofNGOs. One will have to reach governments to attain real success in implementing new strategies. 2. Mobilization of financial resources is a worn-out claim which has not been very successful in the past and will propab ly be even less successful in the future. 3. Finally, the approach confuses somewhat between the emphasis on disseminating improved woodstoves in Uganda and other countries and ideas of "leapfrogging" with technologies such as photovoltaics in Botswana and LPG in Ghana. Some of these rely on local financial resources and self-reliance others on external resources. It w~uld be useful to address this question more candidly.. Despite these shortcomings, th.e book is a useful introduction to African energy problems and deserves to be read with attention. _
Source book for students of energy Jose Goldemberg The Power Guide - an international catalogue of small scale energy equipment. Introduced by Wim Hulscher and Peter Fraenkel, Intermediate Technology Publications,
1994, 103-105 Southampton Row, London WCIB4HH. This is the second edition of a very useful book produced by TDG (Technology and Development Group of the University of Twente of the Netherlands) and Intermediate Technology Publications. It has grown from material used in courses in Rural Energy Planning and the Environment and Energy Management and Conser,:,ation in small and medium-scale Industries. It is organized in three parts: • socio-economic considerations, • guidelines to each type of energy technology (solar power, wind power, water power, biomass energy technology and internal combustion engines) and • a comprehensive list, by country, of manufacturers and their agents which takes up almost two-thirds of the book. In the Introduction, the role smallscale energy technologies can play, technical criteria for selection and cost-effectiveness are explained rather simply and unpretentiously. Although much has been said. of the importance of such technologies, progress has been disappointingly slow, in our view. In 1980, there were 3,000 kW of photovoltaic panels around the world and in 1992, 60,000 kW, spread out in maybe 10-20,000 installations, most of them used for water pumping. To keep the perspecti~re one could remind the readers that ill 1978 a team at the World Bank presented a compelling case for micro-irrigation on a huge scale using PV solar pumps. A goal of 10 million units was presented as ' 'appropriate' :' representing 10 percent of potential farming consumption, but still having a significant impact. . It is mentioned in the Introduction that perhaps 100,000 small wind generators are in use in the world for charging batteries, of which about half are in China (in addition to perhaps 2 million units in use worldw~de in the livestock regions of countries
like Australia, Argentina and South Africa). The important n~velty i~ wind power however is not ill the direction this book addresses itself to: it is taking place in prosperous regions of the world - Denmark and California - where "wind farms' made up of large units generate el~c tricity which is fed into the grI? About 3% of the electricity used In these areas comes from the wind, and Denmark intends to go up to 10% by the year 2000. . Biomass has indeed great potential as the book claims, but again here very significant progress is being made in the direction of large-scale use of biomass in urban water, cogeneration of heat and electricity and of course in ethanol production from sugarcane juice. One must mention here that all the successful alcohol distilleries in Brazil are large-scale operations and the attempts. to develop mini-distilleries have f~I1ed due to economic and technological reasons. One of the interesting chapters of the book is on internal combustion (IC) engines where good hints are given on "how to select an IC. engine" which responds to questions people out in rural areas of develo~ ing countries have to face. Interest In the use of vegetable oils in diesel engines is experiencing a rebirth and seems to be a promising technology. Finally, one should point out that - as the title of the book indicates The Power Guide deals with sources of energy supply and does not discuss at all end-uses of energy and the whole question of improvements i.n the efficiency of energy use. As IS well known, progess in this area is rather impressive and frequently o~e can achieve the same desired result In energy services with smaller energy inputs. All in all, however, The Powe.r Guide is very well presented and It is the book to be used by anyone giving courses on the subject or facing energy problems in rural areas. _ Jose Goldemberg is Professor at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Energy for Sustainable Development. Volume 1 No.1. May 1994
59