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David Lipschitz Easter Renewal Message 4th April 2015

Letter send to the people who I know in the City of Cape Town:

To my dear friends in the City of Cape Town

On this Easter weekend, a weekend of renewal, I thought these links might be of interest:

http://energytransition.de/2015/03/civic-energy-provides-50percent-of-uk-electricity-in-2050

http://cleantechnica.com/2015/03/31/unep-green-investment-17-103-gw-added-2014

By 2050, at least half of our electricity will be generated by us, homeowners, SMME's, ie Embedded Generation.

We know it's going to happen; and we know it's happening: Renewable Embedded Electricity Generation will become the norm with "at least half of generation being embedded in the system generated by civic society".

So why doesn't the City of Cape Town embrace this change? I know you are trying to increase electricity revenues as fast as possible, but at some point there will be a tax revolt. So why not increase rates revenues faster by getting more people to come and live sustainably in Cape Town and encourage us to use less electricity and less water and less sewerage and drive less and pollute our air less?

Why not pre-empt a potential tax revolt and also the number of illegal connections by making Cape Town and the Western Cape a Sustainable Hub? We have the people and the competence and the finance to make this happen. And if people become prosumers they will want to be connected to the grid, and illegal connections will disappear.

We have leaders employing old, out of date, methodologies, keeping South Arica in the dark ages rather than leading us into the light.

Instead these same leaders, with a small mind-set change, could create an environment for fast, sustainable, healthy, growth. And there will be many more voters as people become enfranchised to better their lives and contribute to a healthy integrated grid and web of communications and infrastructure.

Yours faithfully,
David Lipschitz
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