
Tesla Batteries Are Keeping Zimbabwe’s Economy Running - hhs
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-01/tesla-batteries-are-keeping-zimbabwe-s-economy-running
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NKosmatos
Tesla batteries being used as a big UPS for mobile base stations. Nice idea
for remote stations!

Fun fact: from the metal mesh grill (cabinet on the right next to Tesla) looks
like it's Ericsson equipment being powered.

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gonesilent
And is worth a ton more $ vs the powerwall in a armored cage.

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tgsovlerkhgsel
I suspect reselling stolen telecom equipment is a lot harder than reselling
(or simply keeping and using) a battery that everyone can use.

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mikorym
An engineer working in JHB told me the stolen battery business is a R 1b a
year market (15 ZAR = 1 USD; so USD 65m a year) in South Africa so you are
probably right.

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londons_explore
Power only being turned on a few hours per day is supposed to save power, and
act as a form of rationing.

If everyone buys batteries and charges them when the power is on, and uses
them the rest of the time, it doesn't save any power, and just costs everyone
far more money.

Pretty bad for the economy as a whole.

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tinus_hn
Not if they are mostly charged by the sun and also batteries act to level the
load over time which lessens requirements for the power source.

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bufferoverflow
Interesting fact about Zimbabwe's economy: they had one of the worst
hyperinflation stories in human history. Then in 2009 they switched to a mix
of foreign currencies (mostly USD). It stopped the crazy inflation, their
markets calmed down and started working.

This year they switched to their own currency again. 40% inflation already.

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echelon
It would be a fascinating case study if they were to switch to a crypto
currency. Is anyone aware of any countries with hyperinflation (or otherwise
unstable economies) that have attempted to do so?

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elihu
There are problems with that. For one, consider that if all of a country's
debt were denominated in bitcoin. For instance, the government issues bonds
that can be redeemed when they mature for some quantity of BTC.

Now consider what happens if the value of bitcoin goes up suddenly. The
government now is much deeper in debt than they were planning to be.

Sometimes having your own currency has benefits, for the country and for the
world economy as a whole. For instance, if a country goes into recession and
the value of their currency drops, then their debt can shrink (if it's
denominated in local currency) along with the economy so that it doesn't
bankrupt the country. Also, when the price of local goods drops with respect
to other currencies, it encourages exports which usually helps the economy
recover.

If you use a currency controlled by some other country or institution (i.e.
the Euro), you don't have these safeguards. That's true as well if the
currency is controlled by no one in particular (e.g. Bitcoin).

I don't know what Zimbabwe's particular problem was with their own currency.
Sometimes using an external currency makes sense (like the Bretton Woods
system in Europe before the Nixon shock in 1971). But it can be dangerous as
well.

(A real economist could probably explain this all better. I just recently
happened to read a book on all the problems with monetary policy in Europe
written by Yanis Varoufakis, who served as Greece's finance minister for three
months.)

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stakhanov
These mechanisms you mention are all mechanisms that have historically been
used, but there is a widespread consensus that it's not the right thing to do.
Best practice is that a central bank should be independent of government and
their mandate should not be to meddle with the valuation of a country's debt
but to keep the value of the currency stable. For example, for the ECB it
would be completely impossible to make monetary policy to suit the fiscal
needs of all Euro-area countries since they are in wildly differing situations
as far as their debt-levels and fiscal policies are concerned. Fortunately
that's not part of the ECB's job description, though. Their job is: Keep
inflation at a target that's close to but not exceeding 2% over the medium
term. In theory the Fed should be just as independent from the U.S. government
as the ECB is from any European government.

~~~
orbifold
Of course if you believe anything you just said about the ECB you are really
delusional. They are very much dependent on a few European governments
(primarily France and Germany), this became readily apparent during the
financial crisis of 2008. The Bundesbank president at the time had served in
the Kanzleramt before.

~~~
stakhanov
I believe that starting a comment with accusing somebody of being delusional
is not in line with HN guidelines -- see
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

The national central banks don't have all that much to say within the ECB
system and are basically a historical remnant of a system that has been
superseded and made obsolete (like the queen of England).

Personally I don't have a problem with somebody serving in government
administration moving on to a role that's independent of government. Not
everybody in administration is a political entity, and it is very possible for
somebody who had been a political entity to leave politics behind. The same
people who like to spin everything into conspiracy were also keen to point out
that Mario Draghi had previously been with Goldman Sachs. ...so if it is
somebody from public administration, there's a conspiracy theory. If it is
somebody from business, there's a conspiracy theory, too. In that case where
are these people supposed to come from? In my opinion it's a good thing that
people need a proven track record of some kind or another to be eligible for
offices like that, you can't just pick them up on the street just because, for
political reasons, you require that they should have no past of any kind.

And, finally: European sovereigns weren't particularly in trouble in 2008. It
was in 2010 that the crisis had made its way into the accounts of sovereigns,
most notably the Greek debt crisis which later expanded into a debt crisis for
Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain. During that time, this mechanism was,
indeed, a much discussed topic, but precisely in the sense of what I
previously wrote: It was a historical precedent for how a sovereign debt
crisis plays out when you can't just inflate your way out of it.

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quaquaqua1
Wow, this article is reall interesting to me. I am actually an extreme critic
of Tesla.

However, I also am an ardent supporter of cost-efficient technologies (anyone
who knows what an Acer C720 is knows what cost-efficiency is). So, it is
really awesome to me that a country that has been ravaged by corruption and
health crises is able to run vital services with repurposed hardware that
isn't anything to do with glitz and glam like Tesla cars.

Hope they continue to build what they need with whatever they can continue to
get their hands on.

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eduah
This is not repurposed Tesla hardware, they are using actual Tesla backup
battery product.

~~~
_ph_
I would say they are repurposed in the sense that they were intended for home
usage and not for keeping cell towers working.

~~~
optimiz3
If you buy a brand new server and use it for your PC, does that make it
repurposed? To most people, it's a brand new computer.

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kristianp
I wonder if solar plus batteries will become more common than the power grid
in some of these countries, making the power grid redundant.

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icebraining
Seems doubtful. Solar and batteries require large initial investments; that's
generally easier for the government or power companies than individuals.

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cryptozeus
The photo of tesla battery pack behind the bars is striking.

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trebligdivad
At $6500 it's over a years worth over a years average salary [using numbeo.com
rates] , and more importantly it's useful to anyone else suffering from
intermittent electric which they all are.

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maimeowmeow
It be worth stealing anywhere, provided you ok (or dont care) with possible
consequenses if getting caught. Resale, private usage.

Guess the gate is eletricfied, as the bars look easy to get through.

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gruez
>Guess the gate is eletricfied

doesn't look like it. it's not isolated from the ground, so any electricity is
going straight into the earth. the bigger deterrent is the barbed wire, but
you can get pass that (and the electric fence, if any) with a fiberglass
ladder.

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nine_k
A wooden ladder is even easier (though heavier).

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22dingdongdung
Tangential but as an effort to go green- I'm considering not buying new Led
acid batteries for my UPS and reusing the old ones from my old laptop. Does
anybody know if this can be done?

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TheSpiceIsLife
Fair chance _old_ laptop batteries are going to be well and truely past their
serviceable life.

Lead acid batteries are highly recyclable, and more easily recycled than
lithium ion cells anyway.

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22dingdongdung
By old I mean used not old-by-age. I usually buy a new laptop every 3 years

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TheSpiceIsLife
Have you looked in to what’s required to balance-charge the cells?

I’ve seen some blog and YouTube videos where people have repurposed 18650
lithium ion cells.

There’s a bit to it, but it’s doable.

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ahmetyas01
they have to remove tesla logo from batteries for rubbery.

