Obama's 'Mama Sarah' goes solar in Kenya

Obama's 'Mama Sarah' goes solar in Kenya

hu Aug 20, 4:47 am ET

NAIROBI (AFP) – US President Barack Obama's step-grandmother Sarah proudly announced Thursday that her modest Kenyan homestead was now solar-powered.

"I am very pleased that my home has been improved thanks to solar energy and I'll make sure my grandson hears about it," Greenpeace International quoted Sarah Obama as saying.

The environmentalist group is hosting a workshop on renewable energy in the country drawing youth from Sarah's Kogelo village in western Kenya and the country's largest slum in Nairobi, Kibera.

Senator Barack Obama school in Kogelo was also fitted with solar panels.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090820/wl_africa_afp/kenyaobamaenergyalternative_20090820084750




Mama Sara Obama, the U.S. President's grandmother flicks on the lights after Greenpeace installed a Solar power system at her home in Kogelo Village, Kenya. The solar installations are part of a 20 day renewable energy workshop hosted by Greenpeace's Solar Generation with 25 participants from the Kibera Community Youth Programme and community members of Nyang'oma Kogelo.
(PRNewsFoto/Greenpeace, Richard Mark Dobson)

it's wonderful what Greenpeace International is doing for our Planet with their Solar Panels.

The article doesn't say whether Sara Obama had electricity prior to the solar install, but it's reasonable to think that many people in Africa and Asia might go from no electricity to solar power skipping power lines entirely, the same way similar folks went from no phone to cell phone skipping landline entirely.

In places where technology has been low service, why go through all the interim, messy steps when you can have the simple, elegant current solution?

Makes total sense to me.

Congrats to Sara Obama. Enjoy your solar panels. :thumbsup:

edit: spelling

Cellphone technology worked because it was cheaper to build cell towers and buy cellphones than it was to build a traditional phone system. In some places it simply wasn't practical or possible to build a traditional phone system.

Solar is a considerably more expensive proposition per end user.

now if they would just give the green light to windfarms of the vineyard, gooo green!!!