Desertec.org makes an admirable attempt at defining a great project. We are talking a civilization project that requires a lot of capital in order to extract electrical energy from the solar radiation for transcontinental Middle European countries.
The idea of the Baltic HGÜ (Hochspannungs-Gleichstrom-Übertragung), aiming at providing electric energy from wind for Middle European countries, is a related project.
At the moment, both the solar and wind energy ideas fall victim to the electrical networks not being sufficient. In some areas, we witness dramatic developments, like people getting money back for using up electrical power, because prices have plummeted on the market.
The proposed solution for the distribution problem is discussed under the name: smart grid. It means that production and demand are selectively cut off in order to get better optimization criteria. These criteria, however, are still to be defined.
All this is technically feasible and many groups in our society promote it in various places. However, the enthusiasm is oriented towards society. For the party who acts, it is neither something that makes him personally accountable nor will it affect him directly.
But if you want a regardful, reflected life, you will want to be personally accountable and directly affected! That is my personal credo. I do not aspire to verify it or make it imperative.
Consequently, what I have to do is act privately without leaving out the social aspect. Luckily, there is no longer any need to write a blueprint for private behaviour, because Roland Dürre already wrote a list of items for his personal Desert Tec. To me, it seems like he manages quite well to reduce his personal CO2 footprint and thereby take advantage of the induced slowness for improving his own personal happiness. I think the integral of socially rational behaviour and individual happiness in life provides a strong core for what we should do in 2010.
wl
(Translated by EG)
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