MayesFilmAnnotation10

Meredith Mayes Annotation #10: Burning in the Sun 11/14/11 Word Count: 1,091

The film __Burning in the Sun__ by Daniel Dembele was produced in 2010 and, unlike other films that we have watched for this class, outlines the move towards sustainable electricity for a people who have never had any electricity at all. The film is a testament to the possibility of a sustainable future using innovation and existing technology. __Burning in the Sun__ really focuses on how cheap, recycled solar panels are bringing electricity to off the grid Malians. The narrative is explained by members of the blooming business Afriq-Power. There is some background information on the state of Mali given by villagers. The film draws out sustainability problems in reverse as well as normally. The first is the education levels in Mali. The communities cannot develop because there is no light to study and do well on exams, and women are pulled out of school to help with chores during the day. The crops die due to lack of water and clean wells. In these conditions, many people lack the knowledge to adapt things in the world around them and break out of their undeveloped area. Although developing them into a well-developed place could easily put too much stress on the world’s resources. But the Malian people are very good at being sustainable, since they cannot afford to waste much. But they lack electricity, which makes them very isolated. Enter a tech-savvy group who builds solar panels from damaged panels practically thrown away by American companies. These panels provide off the grid energy for communities and effectively bring them into the Malian technical forefront. These villages are entirely off the grid. It does bring up the sustainability issue of the things that many corporations waste that are still valuable and useable for other purposes. Culturally, Americans do not want to purchase damage goods or fix them after these goods have damage, and so, although such things are still useable, we throw them out. We use very little innovation to reuse things in the United States, which is a huge sustainability issue. I really enjoyed watching the film for the sheer ingenuity displayed by the Malians and the white man in the development of the panels and watching the installation and the benefits that the villagers had the very first year the panels were incredible. The number of students passing their exams increased from in the 20s to 97%. One woman knew that she could get a refrigerator, and another teacher was excited about the potential for radio and television to connect the village with the world. Lack of education is one of the greatest plight of the twentieth and twenty-first century. I think it also inadvertently highlighted some problems with American culture as well. Away from the marketing ploys and established infrastructure, villages are entirely sustainable and off the grid. The film also wasn’t trying to sell anything besides an ideal for Daniel to help modernize his fellow Malian. As long as any growth in Mali remains sustainable, which was clearly not an issue discussed by the film, I see nothing unconvincing about how poorer countries lack of infrastructure make them ideal for setting up a solar powered system. The film could be geared towards anybody with an interest in sustainability, electricity, or building things. If the film wanted to be more educational, it could easily have explained the basic process of solar energy. It also could have gone more in depth as to how these panels were fixed and explained other fixes for things that Americans deem useless and other nations have found to be invaluable. The entire film presents a solution to the problem of broken panels, and it was a good, cohesive film. I think that the film should really inspire wealthier nations to really push towards solar power and moving their population off the grid at a steady rate to cut ourselves off of oil based electricity. We could also offer courses in solar panel repair for the average person. Additionally, one of the problems that people most frequently cite is that the panels might not produce enough for their needs, but if people also limited their consumption of electricity, it would be a far more practical way to both cut consumption of fuel and power. So first, I wanted to look into the solar panel and how it works. Photovoltaic cells have been used to power satellites since 1958, making the sluggish push towards solar energy even sadder. The way cells work is a semiconductor, usually silicon, absorbs certain parts of the energy from photons striking the semiconductor. The cells have an electric field which forces the electrons that pop off during the absorption of energy into a current, which is the most basic form of electricity. This current, once strong enough, can power numerous devices. The electric field is created with two different types of silicon, one of which has an abundance of free electrons, the other of which is lacking. The equilibrium reached as the electrons jump forms the electric field. The only problem with these panels is that the average efficiency is only 12 to 18 percent. The batteries used for storing the solar power have very specific conditions to operate at and the life cycle is not that long ([]). With a working knowledge of photovoltaic cells, I also want to know which nations are leaders in solar technology. According to 1 Block Off the Grid, Germany is easily the world leader, installing almost 8 times as many cells as the United States in 2009, which is related to their goal to having their entire nation run on 100% renewable energy by 2050, and due to the large amount of growth, it seems as though they may actually reach their goal. Spain is the next highest, followed by Japan, the United States, Italy, the Czech Republic, Belgium, China, France and India. Germany has a total of 9,785 MW worth of solar energy produced per year, while the last contender on the list, India, had only 120 MW ([]). Today, solar energy accounts for less than 1/10th of a percent of the world energy demand. For nations such as Mali, where the dry, arid conditions and lots of sunny days means the technology will be reliable, in areas where clouds are a constant fact of life, solar power is slightly less reliable and requires a tougher battery, but despite this, usage has risen about 20% per year for fifteen years ([]).