U.S. forces overseeing nearly two dozen solar projects to alleviate Iraq’s electricity crisis

[unhappycamper]

Col. Joseph Martin, commander of 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, inspects solar panels sit on roof of a clinic in Baghdad’s Amariyah neighborhood Jan. 15. The clinic is one of nearly two dozen solar projects that the military is doing in northwest Baghdad as an attempt to restart essential services without drawing on the overtaxed national power grid.


U.S. forces overseeing nearly two dozen solar projects to alleviate Iraq’s electricity crisis
By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Monday, January 26, 2009

BAGHDAD — Electricity shortages at Baghdad’s Amariyah clinic once could bring crucial health care services to a quick halt. Doctors could only expect about 12 hours of electricity a day. Iraq’s torrid temperatures often spoiled vaccines before they could be used, and doctors often had the power go out during the middle of their procedures.

"In the middle of the work, the electricity would go away," recalled Dr. Wafa Mustafa Ibrahim, the clinic’s director. "The work would just abruptly stop."

That’s not a worry Ibrahim has anymore though. American leaders oversaw a $165,000 project to install solar panels that tap into Iraq’s most abundant resource.

The clinic is hardly alone in its use of alternative energy. U.S. forces are overseeing nearly two dozen solar projects in the northwest section of Baghdad alone. Planners are increasingly turning to the technology as a way to alleviate Iraq’s electricity crisis until the country’s traditional power plants are producing sufficient power.

Solar power is not a completely new strategy in Iraq. American forces have long relied on the technology to power lights that illuminate Iraqi streets and deter enemy fighters. But the most recent efforts use sun power for more significant essential services like sewage pumps and medical clinics. In all, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division plans to spend close to $6 million on solar-powered projects in the quadrant of northwest Baghdad that it oversees.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60254

[The Wielding Truth]

1. Unbelievable.

[Chulanowa]

2. Indeed it is

Well... When you think about it it makes perverse sense.... if the Iraqis are on solar, they won't need all that oil!

[HillbillyBob]

3. If the services are putting solar in there why the hell can't we get /afford it

HERE?! They are using out tax dollars to kill the Iraqis to steal their oil.
Why not save lives and a gob of &**&$$ and put solar on our governmental and community buildings then we would not have to murder for oil.

[Chulanowa]

4. I'll explain, but it's hard to understand unless you perform the following exercise...

Pretend you're an asshole. No, a bigger asshole. Imagine for a moment, you are the nexus of assholery. Imagine you are the guy who carries his company-paid tickets to a south pacific resort while laying off workers. For just a moment, imagine you are the ur-asshole, the god to which Republicans build shrines.

Now that, for the moment, you're an asshole, I'll explain

We can afford to give Solar to the Iraqis, because it means we get to steal their oil, and sell it at inflated prices here in the US - we have to recoup the costs of the solar project, and don't you know there's a shortage? However, Solar technology is quite expensive - too expensive for Americans. We have to give it to the Iraqis because they sure can't afford it, and so that actually makes our profit margins go up because we tack that onto each barrel of oil.

Basically our goal is to keep the US population enslaved to oil, because they're the biggest consumers with hte least options, and that's just how we like it.

*Deep breath*

Okay, we can stop being assholes now. All that probably won't make any sense oncethe assholery passes from you, but that's how it goes