Setho
18-03-2008, 08:03 PM
Is there anybody here who works at the mines, or knows people who work at the mines?
With the mines (and other big industrial energy-users) hogging some 80% of the available energy that Eeeksom miraculously creates, doesn't it make sense to put some attention on the efficiency of energy use by the d*mn mines, rather than the rest of us? With all the press on the energy "crisis", most of us are not noticing the big, fat and gold-dust-covered elephant sitting right there in our living rooms, right in front of our TVs, ya know?
I mean, come on, isn't it better to make the big-arsed 80% energy elephant more efficient than the rest of us who pay nearly three times more per kwh than the d*mn mines AND using a mere 1/4th of what energy THEY use, right? And not to mention the coming rate hikes for we 'lil, mousy 20% users, not to mention the penalties/tariffs that pours salt into our energy wounds.
I mean, think about it. Eeeksom wants us 20% energy users to cut down our energy use by 10%, right? So 10% of the 20% is only a 2% reduction of total SA energy use. But 10% of the mines' 80% energy use is a whopping 8%...4 TIMES the energy cuts that the general public can manage to cut. If the public were to match that 8% reduction of energy use, the public would have to cut their energy use by a whopping 40%! Fat chance when the public can hardly manage to cut their use by even 1 or 2 % so far. Yea the public can do more, but the mines can do even more, yes? Given that a good 50% to 70% of the energy used by a mine goes to "maintenance", there's got to be some room for greater energy efficiency, isn't there?
So does anybody here in the boards work in the mines or does anybody know anybody who does? What can be done to help -- no, force, really -- the mines to be more efficient so that we can have a bit more wiggle room in our dealing with this crisis?
It's time that the 'lil mouse roared and spooked the gold-dust-covered elephant, I say! So what info can you dig up?
.
With the mines (and other big industrial energy-users) hogging some 80% of the available energy that Eeeksom miraculously creates, doesn't it make sense to put some attention on the efficiency of energy use by the d*mn mines, rather than the rest of us? With all the press on the energy "crisis", most of us are not noticing the big, fat and gold-dust-covered elephant sitting right there in our living rooms, right in front of our TVs, ya know?
I mean, come on, isn't it better to make the big-arsed 80% energy elephant more efficient than the rest of us who pay nearly three times more per kwh than the d*mn mines AND using a mere 1/4th of what energy THEY use, right? And not to mention the coming rate hikes for we 'lil, mousy 20% users, not to mention the penalties/tariffs that pours salt into our energy wounds.
I mean, think about it. Eeeksom wants us 20% energy users to cut down our energy use by 10%, right? So 10% of the 20% is only a 2% reduction of total SA energy use. But 10% of the mines' 80% energy use is a whopping 8%...4 TIMES the energy cuts that the general public can manage to cut. If the public were to match that 8% reduction of energy use, the public would have to cut their energy use by a whopping 40%! Fat chance when the public can hardly manage to cut their use by even 1 or 2 % so far. Yea the public can do more, but the mines can do even more, yes? Given that a good 50% to 70% of the energy used by a mine goes to "maintenance", there's got to be some room for greater energy efficiency, isn't there?
So does anybody here in the boards work in the mines or does anybody know anybody who does? What can be done to help -- no, force, really -- the mines to be more efficient so that we can have a bit more wiggle room in our dealing with this crisis?
It's time that the 'lil mouse roared and spooked the gold-dust-covered elephant, I say! So what info can you dig up?
.