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.
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.
>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.