
Afghan opium growers have switched to solar power - pseudolus
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53450688
======
hosh
I like solar and all, but I will say that just looking at the farming
practices of these growers, this transformation will likely be shortlived (I
am thinking in terms of generations, not in terms of seasons). Yes, the solar
allows people to rapidly deploy solar to use as pumps, but those pumps are
also depleting the aquifer. They are probably not putting anything back into
the aquifer with practices such as rainwater harvesting (earthworks and
improving infiltration, rather than rain barrels).

In metro Phoenix, AZ (here in the States) we have been seeing something
similar as the deep water have been drying up. Arizona is at the bottom of the
water rights (from the Colorado river), and people’s solutions have been to
install an electric pump to get at the water. With so many people draining off
of the aquifer, people who have been depending on the water have been having
difficulty with getting consistent water. Many of them are finding that they
have to try to sell the property. What they have _not_ been doing are things
like, capturing the rain that does come to the region to irrigate crops or
landscape; use of greywater; use of a composting toilet (which cleans waste
with the carbon cycle rather than the hydrologic cycle), and otherwise
conserve _drinking_ and _cooking_ water. Tuscon, AZ and Flagstaff, AZ have
residents and public policies in place that does a much better job with this
than Phoenix.

With cheap solar added to the mix, what will happen is that it hastens the
aquifer depletion.

So those poppy farmers are not thinking with whole systems or thinking in the
long term. On the other hand, if they were thinking in the long term, they
probably would not be growing poppy as a cash crop in the first place. Perhaps
small batches to make high quality anesthesia for local use, as part of of a
more diverse crop. You don’t kill off your aquifer, and you don’t make
something that will kill off your customers. You’d have nothing left.

My conclusion is that that the market forces, while transformative, is also
very limited and short-sighted, and there are better ways for humans to
interact with each other.

~~~
colinmhayes
Can't agree that the poppy farmers aren't thinking long term. Abusing the
aquifer is the nash equilibrium. As soon as one person starts pumping everyone
else has to too, because the water will be gone soon either way. This is a
collaboration failure more than some sort of ignoring the long term for the
short term.

~~~
Melting_Harps
Isn't that a clear example of the Tragedy of the Commons? I mean, if access to
the aquifer required the replenishment of it as a barrier of entry wouldn't
that in turn mitigate the issue? For example, requiring that 1:1 rainwater be
recaptured, something Colorado only recently allowed, and pumped back into the
aquifer? Enforceability becomes the real issue, but having lived most of my
Life in CA and in CO in the US, Water wars are REAL and I only see them
getting more serious unless we come up with better desalination techniques and
processes in the immediate future.

My chemistry professor was saying in the mid 2000s that water had already
become the new Gold.

~~~
sandworm101
>> For example, requiring that 1:1 rainwater be recaptured

Collection of rainwater is never an option in farming. The reason they are
irrigating is because there isn't enough rain. To capture enough rain to
facilitate irrigation requires devices as large or larger than the fields to
be irrigated. Rain barrels aren't enough. Agriculture measures water in acre-
feet.

So you turn field B into a pond to hold water for field A. How deep is that
pond? If it is only a couple feet you will loose all your water to
evaporation. You need deeper water. You need a dam. So you better be good at
concrete retaining walls, or hope there is a convenient river valley on your
plot.

~~~
hosh
Rainwater harvesting is not very efficient with a rain barrel. There are much
better design patterns for harvesting rain:

1\. To scale, you are really trying to capture water in the soil itself

2\. This means taking advantage of terrain features to manage patterns of
flow. The idea here is to slow down flow so that it cycles through the
planting areas so that the water can infiltrate instead of running off.

3\. Mosquitos is a problem if pooling remains for more than three days. The
solution here is to add organic compounds (mulching) to cover the areas being
pooled. It effectively makes the water go below the surface, and have the
added benefit of carrying composting nutrients deeper into the soil.

4\. Soil’s ability to hold water depends upon a number of factors. Among them
is how much carbon material is there, which includes the remains of root
systems. Living, healthy soil will act as a sponge and release water to the
plant as needed.

5\. So protecting soil erosion is a huge part of conserving water. If the rain
is carrying off soil because it is running off too fast, there is never a
build up of soil to act as a sponge.

6\. You may need to plant more than a monocrop. At least plant ground cover to
protect the farm’s soil fertility.

7\. Certain soil amendments can have lasting effect on its ability to absorb
water. Biochar — charcoal that have been prepared in a way to make it suitable
for plants — have the property of absorbing water and releasing it as needed.
They also form habitats for microbes and fungi, which can also enhance plant
growth.

8\. Heavy fertilizing may be contributing to soil loss. They don’t help
accumulate the kind of properties that help soil absorb water.

Here is an example paper about it:
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-
biolog...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-
sciences/soil-erosion)

It is not as if this stuff is not well known

------
EricE
"...water is effectively free..." yeah, until they deplete the groundwater.
But until then it's good times! They should talk to farmers or more
importantly, residents in central CA about how much fun it is to run out of
groundwater. Good luck.

~~~
nn3
It's discussed at the end of the article. Water level is dropping at ~3m/year.
One NGO estimates the boom will only last ~10 years before causing massive
problems for everyone living there (not just the farmers). Ironically solar is
the opposite of sustainable here. Diesel power would at least be more self
limiting.

~~~
kolbe
Humanity at its finest: depleting a potentially valuable resource forever so
you can make more of a drug that ruins hundreds of thousands (if not millions)
of lives a year.

~~~
Zenst
Indeed and looking at the graph of heroin production - kinda makes the Taliban
look like good guys as they stopped it until they got removed by America and
the heroin production grew. So pretty messed up.

Why no incentives or drive to curtail production and shift to more useful
crops is something that seems to be ignored as an approach in that area.

If anything - 10 years times - second hand solar panels will be epicly cheap
in that area and more so, all the land used for heroin production will be
barren and that water shortage will impact far further than people will think.
All these bore holes - only increase contamination of the water table and that
may go unnoticed for decades.

This whole situation is creating a perfect storm on many levels and I welcome
the sudden demise of heroin production.

However - all the money spent on customs and border patrol against drugs like
heroin - if just a small percentage of that was used to incentivise produces
to shift crops and stop producing heroin. That would actually work and be
better overall. Though still going to have that water table issue come along
and that is ticking clock of not if, but when.

~~~
sbierwagen
Note that solar panels have limited lifespans in use. The usual industry
warranty is 25 years, and they will have lost a fair amount of capacity by the
end of it.

~~~
labawi
Standard warranty is 80% capacity after 25 years. At that rate you would have
50% capacity after 75 years.

Solar cells should last a long time. The panel itself will probably fail
sooner - especially cheap ones made from plastic.

------
curiousllama
Super cool, but not going to solve the question of renewable energy at scale.

Farmers have been doing things like this for generations. American
Homesteaders - settlers of the sometimes-rather-arid Great Plains in the US -
used windmills for exactly this purpose in the 1800s.

We know renewable energy is super useful under specific circumstances
(remote/underdeveloped electrical grid, low power, low need for consistency).
Another example in the US is emergency phones on the highway - solar panels
power those too, and have for a decade or more.

The critical question is whether it can overcome those specific circumstances
and be useful in developed electrical grids with strong needs for high power
and consistency.

~~~
Joe8Bit
I don't think that's true, for example renewables were responsible for ~50% of
the energy generated in the UK in Q1 2020[0], and Germany claims it's ~40%[1]
and Sweden claims it's ~55%[2].

These aren't perfect numbers, but they clearly demonstrate renewable energy is
deployable at national grid scale.

[0]: [https://www.edie.net/news/10/Renewables-accounted-for-
record...](https://www.edie.net/news/10/Renewables-accounted-for-record-47--
of-UK-generation-in-first-quarter-of-2020)

[1]: [https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-
energy-c...](https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-energy-
consumption-and-power-mix-charts)

[2]: [https://sweden.se/nature/energy-use-in-
sweden/](https://sweden.se/nature/energy-use-in-sweden/)

~~~
Akronymus
The only problem I have with that, is that renewables can mostly only be
treated as a bonus. Trying to rely on them for baseline power means you have
to put out a LOT more capacity than you'd need with fossils.

IMO baseline being nuclear and the rest being mostly renewables (With HEAVY
reliance on pumped storage power plants, as a sort of capacitor) is the way to
go to minimize emissions.

~~~
acomjean
We have a solar array on the house. A lot of the Dc to AC solar inverters used
in residential installs use the grid to match the frequency of the AC.

The downside is with no grid power the solar system doesn’t work to power the
house. There are systems that can but they’re more money.

~~~
cookieswumchorr
can you directly use the DC as a reserve source? like, install car plugs in
the house? there are lots of smaller everyday electrical gear for this
standard

~~~
VBprogrammer
It's actually a much more interesting question than you might expect. Lots of
modern appliances could run perfectly on DC of around the RMS voltage. For
example the most modern fridges rectify the incoming mains to drive a
brushless DC motor, this allows them to run at an appropriate speed rather
than using bang bang control. Even an an induction hob, you might think it was
most reliant on having an AC waveform but actually they need a much higher
frequency so again they rectify the incoming mains.

Obviously it's not quite that easy, for example an oven uses resistive heating
elements which would work fine on DC, however, the relay in the control
circuitry wouldn't be able to switch a DC voltage.

------
setgree
> For an upfront payment of $5,000 they can buy an array of solar panels and
> an electric pump. Once it is installed, there are virtually no running
> costs.

I don't know much about solar panels, but I thought they broke down fairly
frequently and required specialized tools and knowledge to repair? This
article makes it sound like the panels are pretty reliable over time, which
would be welcome news to me.

2) Drilling down 100M to groundwater -- does this require industrial
equipment? I wonder how these farmers afford it, if so, or perhaps drilling
100M is much easier than I believe?

~~~
pjc50
> I don't know much about solar panels, but I thought they broke down fairly
> frequently and required specialized tools and knowledge to repair?

Where did you hear that? Have they perchance been trying to mislead you about
renewables?

A solar cell is a huge flat diode. A panel is a chain of them in series. It
sits there and makes electricity when exposed to light. There are no moving
parts other than electrons. It requires no lubrication and no maintenance.
Since they're sealed units under glass, the only thing you might have to worry
about is leaks and damage from weather, which can be addressed with sealant if
the panel is still functional. Admittedly if you crack it badly enough it will
be unrepairable.

The inverter is slightly more fragile, being a big piece of power electronics,
but still usually guaranteed for 10 years. The most fragile part of the system
is probably the pump.

~~~
setgree
I believe I developed that impression from reading about peace corps projects
involving solar panels, that, once the volunteers left, no one has the
expertise to maintain, so they just went unused. I am glad to learn otherwise!
I’m looking at some property in upstate NY and would love to install some
panels.

~~~
errantspark
Highly recommend it, though beware your yields will be truly abysmal during
the winter. I live entirely off-grid in California and even here the dead of
winter can be a bit tight on power. I will say setting the whole thing up is
super duper easy, and if you buy second-hand solar your price/watt can be very
very cheap. I paid about 30c/watt for panels.

------
orbital-decay
While the opium growers' perspective is an interesting one, the conclusion is
misleading.

 _> The story of the revolution in Afghan heroin production shows us just how
transformative solar power can be. Don't imagine this is some kind of benign
"green" technology. Solar is getting so cheap that it is capable of changing
the way we do things in fundamental ways and with consequences that can affect
the entire world._

It's not exactly solar that is transformative here, but the access to _any_
electricity at all. It's not like they can use a normal power grid for heroin
production, even if they had one there.

Photovoltaic panels are more convenient for providing very small scale off-
grid power than most other tech like thermal solar or diesel generators,
thanks to being heavily subsidized by other people - that would be the more
accurate conclusion.

~~~
fennecfoxen
Grow ops in the US are also prone to use solar power for their grow lights, so
that the Feds don’t hunt them down based on the power bill. This isn’t an
endorsement of solar more generally, either.

------
baybal2
It can work the other way too:

[https://kmarp.com/home](https://kmarp.com/home)

Solar powered aquifer recharge stations were close contenders for the project.

~~~
aaron695
Wow, that's a really interesting site.

Aquifer recharge is an interesting topic that one doesn't hear much about.

I guess Domesday dopamine chasers hate missing their rush.

~~~
baybal2
The company I once contracted for once bided for the project. When bids
started to close on $100k, solar panels solidly lost to mains powered pumping
stations, and the company bailed out of the tender.

This is the problem with infrastructure tenders all around the world, even
immediate operations cost is rarely considered to count against lowest upfront
payment.

------
dharma1
It sounds like a mess to be honest. More production of heroin for 10 years,
then 1.5 million refugees because there is no ground water anymore

~~~
toomuchtodo
You’re going to get the refugees anyway due to government and public health
failures [1] in the area (see: Afghanistan fertility rates, the level of
female empowerment and education compared to elsewhere, and healthcare
infrastructure). If you’re anti heroin production, get in there and pump that
water faster than the farmers to deprive them of it.

[1] [https://eurasianet.org/afghanistan-population-boom-
threatens...](https://eurasianet.org/afghanistan-population-boom-threatens-
stabilization-chances)

------
brownbat
Reminds me of this Outside/In episode about (possibly) the earliest adopters
of solar in the US:

[http://outsideinradio.org/shows/2018/1/4/stoner-
panels](http://outsideinradio.org/shows/2018/1/4/stoner-panels)

------
danbruc
Is there a real risk of depleting groundwater reservoirs making this non-
sustainable?

~~~
LeanderK
at the end of the article:

> So much water is now being used that ground water levels in Helmand are
> estimated to be falling by 3m a year. The fear is that pretty soon the water
> will simply run out. "Maybe this boom will not last longer than 10 years,"
> says Orzala Nemat, who runs the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit,
> the country's biggest think tank.

~~~
posterboy
this rate factors in growth. it says nothing about the rate once market
settles.

The fear, i guess, must be that a lot of the water doesn't come back to the
aquifier.

------
phjesusthatguy3
*Some Afghan opium growers have switched to solar power.

This is the free market in full effect. The market is actually larger than
what you can fulfill yourself, why wouldn't you produce as much as possible?

------
learnstats2
Solar is presumably attractive to Afghan opium growers also because it's
decentralised, not directly depending directly on another party to provide
power.

------
ornornor
I heard they’re being switched to meth because the cartels don’t buy poppies
as much anymore and pay partly in amphetamine pills.

------
WrongThinkerNo5
Don't all plants grown with solar power?

------
catsdanxe
We need cia investment and us military troops to protect the fields.

------
DC-3
Interesting story, but the article reads like it was written to be used as an
exercise for teaching English to 15 year olds.

