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Ancient Teachings

Genesis 1, 28 says that we should "go forth and multiply, and replenish the earth." Not all Bibles have this "replenish the e...

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

My SAEEC Presentations

My SAEEC presentations:

DATE:            Wednesday, 11 November 2015
TIME:             13:30-14:00
TRACK:         Session 2 – Track C: Energy Management & Case Studies
TOPIC:          Renewable embedded energy & storage as part of an integrated, smart, energy efficient, grid
VENUE:         Romanus, Emperors Palace

DATE:            Thursday, 12 November 2015
TIME:             09:00-09:30
TRACK:         Session 3 – Track C: Mining & Industrial Energy Efficiency
TOPIC:          Social capital in an African energy system
VENUE:         Tiberius, Emperors Palace

Saturday, October 24, 2015

MIT: (a) Milnerton (Mandelaton) Intuitive Thinker

“David is strongly principled and effectively analytic. He approaches each project with the objective of getting the job done and adding value.

“David has worked on both Information Technology as well as Energy related projects to my complete satisfaction.”

Barry Coltham, Client Service Director at Achievement Awards Group

“David is along-standing friend and a creative thinker who doesn’t even see the box, never mind think outside of it. He is no crackpot, but an educated free thinker with several degrees.

“He is passionate about green technology.”

Dr Joy McCarthy, Senior Research Scientist, UCT, and City of Cape Town Councillor

David Lipschitz, a computer scientist and energy analyst with a UCT and Rhodes BSc Honours degree and a Cranfield MBA, has been running a Software Development business since 1994 and an Energy business since 2008.

David motivates people to change the way they think about their environment and shows people that it is possible to live a sustainable lifestyle with minimal impact on the earth.

Book David to help you change the way your organisation thinks: www.vcita.com/v/davidlipschitz/

☝B.Sc Honours; MBA; M.Inst.D; Associate Member of the Professional Speakers Association of South Africa. Fellow of the South African Alternative Energy Association.

☂ We each have our own power stations! Are we using them effectively & efficiently?

David:
Why I was born / my archetypes: Intuitive thinker, programmer, courier and bridge.
☞ "Intuitive Thinker": NT. ENTJ. http://www.thoughtfuled.com/assess_identify.php
☞ "Programmer"​
  ☞ Financial & Accounting Software using Delphi & Oracle.
  ☞ Incentive & Loyalty Software Development & Innovation at Achievement Awards Group ◉.
  ☞ Changing the way organisations think.
  ☞ Embedded Generation & Embedded Storage Expert.
☞ "Courier"​: Not scared of delivering messages people need to hear.
☞ "Bridge": Showing you how to get from here to there.

Other interesting skills: mentoring, inventing jobs.

Schedule Time With Me: www.vcita.com/v/davidlipschitz/

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Social Capital in an African Energy System

 CNBC


On Thursday 22nd, I am talking on "Social capital in an African renewable energy system" at the Sub Saharan Power Summit

Good timing due to the university student strikes going on at the moment.

I will be presenting an alternative paradigm where Africa can use its matric students and inherent African knowledge to solve its problems. We don't have enough university students in Africa to follow the European and rest of the world's economic paradigm.

How can we solve this problem?

You might also like to read: 2 billion jobs to disappear by 2030

What I am presenting discusses how we can solve this particular problem.

I don't expect success overnight as I have been discussing this in one form or another since 2009 and my wife and I have been practicing this concept since 1999 when I cancelled all my pension policies, and we decided to look after our own pension and our own interests, which paradoxically require us to work with quite a few other people.

Note my saying: "The rich are rich because they socialise. The poor socialists are poor because they don't socialise." What I'm saying is that the rich talk and share and work together, hence the main reason they are rich. All us poor and middle class people try to do everything ourselves, and we fail, generally.

See my RepairYourWorld BLOG for essays I have written since 2008. Search this page for "retire". Note one of the questions I ask: "Why does there need to be a cost of living?"

Perhaps this is scary for the big monopolies who want us to channel all our money via them. But if 2 billion jobs will disappear in the next 20 years, then the monopolies are out of date and we need a new (old) paradigm.

Thanks for all your ongoing support as I continue down this lonely path.


Monday, October 5, 2015

David's Homeowner Power Station Conference



So after seven years of preparation, my very first self-organised conference is Live and you can buy tickets.

"David's Homeowner Power Station Conference". With a twist. You decide its content. I make topic recommendations and I start the conference with a 40 minute keynote speech, titled, "Load Shedding and What we can do about it".

David's Homeowner Power Station Conference: preparing for a world without jobs.

We all have our own power stations. We have power. We have internal power which makes us who we are. And we can also generate power and save power. And energy. Hence "my power station". Say it aloud. "My Power Station". :) Feels good, doesn't it.

The conference is at the Belmont Square Conference Centre in Rondebosch, Cape Town, on the 28th November 2015. I'd like to thank the Belmont Square team for helping me to make this conference a reality and for their help and flexibility. And I'd like to thank the Webtickets team for helping me with the set up and for not complaining about the numerous changes that were needed as I learnt how their platform works.



We also have potential venues in Paarl and other parts of South Africa and if you'd prefer to attend elsewhere, in South Africa, Africa or anywhere, please let me know?

Registration is from 8am and the conference is from 9am to 5pm. Breakfast and lunch will be provided and teas, coffees, biscuits and fruit will be available all day.

There will also be special presents such as bags, USB sticks, and some special guests have asked to attend. Note that in order to cover our costs the bags and USB sticks will probably be sent to participants after the conference, but watch this space. Any sponsors are welcome.

The basic idea behind this conference is that I attend very many conferences and due to my knowledge in energy and my contribution to renewable energy in South Africa, I am given tickets to the conferences and I speak at many of them. Some of these conferences cost R7,500 per day.



I want to transfer this knowledge to homeowners and small business owners, who have limited time and limited resources. I am very good at taking complex, technical issues and explaining them in plain English. And I intend to help you along your path to developing your own power station and retiring sooner than expected.

I have chosen to make this conference especially for home owners and small business owners and to charge only R750 for the day. To cover the conference costs, pay myself, and make a small profit, so that I can organise the next conference(s), and so that I can devote more time to the Research and Development I do in Renewable Energy and Energy Storage (batteries).

Every participant will be able to ask one question. Some of the questions will be answered at the conference and all will be answered on my BLOG. We will have discussions at the conference and perhaps we will change ourselves, and maybe even South Africa and Africa, and who knows, maybe the world.

Early bird R550 for the day. Early bird available until 7th November.

After that the full R750 fee is applicable.

The early bird fee allows us to get everything up and running, pay deposits, get the handouts, make sure the food is provided, etc.

Including VAT and you get an invoice made out to you or your company. We are a PTY Ltd company and we are VAT registered and our company started in November 1994, so we have been around and we have credibility.

Buy Tickets at Webtickets or email me if you want to pay by internet transfer or if you need an invoice first.

Topics to follow.

Thanks to my brother Steve Freedom for the logo and photographic manipulation work.


Friday, October 2, 2015

Letter in Cape Times: 1st October 2015: Time for Citizens to buy Cape's SAPS, Roads and Railways

Dear all

Letter in 1st October 2015 Cape Times: Time for Citizens to buy Cape's SAPS, Roads and Railways

Regards
David

Dear Editor

According to yesterday's news​,​ "The Western Cape is the most under-resourced province".

According to research I am doing​ on 19th Century US, private landowners and business people built the highways, called "pikes".

Initially they wanted to toll them, but when they realised they could make substantially more money by bringing people to their towns and for shopping at their farms along their roads, the real build out of these "pikes" started, bringing massive investment to the towns and cities along their roads.

Different towns competed to build pikes to bring people faster and more efficiently and with better stops along the way to their particular towns.

It is now time for the citizens of the Western Cape to buy our roads, to buy our railways, to buy our police service and to take responsibility for ourselves.

Our government isn't interested in our province anymore, allowing crime stats to spiral out of control, and my staff regularly arrive late for work ​due to an under​-resourced railway system.

The Orange Free State has a surplus of police officers, whilst the Western Cape has a shortage.

Just as ​EFF president ​Malema says, strategic assets should be owned "by the people" collectively and not taxed (tolled)​, including the tunnels and passes that are currently tolled.

I don't agree with Malema that these should be owned by government because of the huge waste at the centre.

We need the transport infrastructure for business and leisure purposes.

Tolling them is like having cholesterol build up in one's arteries, preventing the smooth flow of people and goods and capital.

This can be easily started with the reintroduction of Mutual Societies and for people to buy debentures in these companies​, giving them the finance they need to buy and maintain the infrastructure that is so sorely needed to keep South Africa great.

Business owners want their staff to get to work relaxed and on time. Workers want to get to work relaxed and on time.

While​ many people think the government should be doing this with existing taxation, we all know that the government has other priorities.

This was the same in 19th ​century US. Nothing new. Local people took responsibility for their towns and cities back then.

Time to do it again, in a different time and in a different place.

Yours faithfully,
David Lipschitz

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Letter in 30th September 2015 Tabletalk: "Tariff Upset"

The City of Cape Town over the past two years have chased away thousands of customers by removing them from the lifeline tariff and putting them on normal tariffs! in many cases more than doubling their electricity prices.

Most recently the City of Cape Town have told pensioners that if the house they rent is revalued to above R300,000 these renters must pay a higher electricity price!

In 2009 we installed a solar-electric system and qualified for the lifeline tariff, so we applied and got it. Our average units per month are around 300 kWh (units). Then in July 2014, we suddenly started getting bigger bills.

We had been unilaterally and without warning been moved to the "normal" tariff. Our bill increased from R2,857 in the year ended June 2014 to R6,467 in the year ended June 2015. Our units increased from 3,328 kWh to 3,851 kWh in the same period. So our tariff (rate per kWh) increased from 86 cents per kWh to R1.68, a 95% increase in one year!

Out of interest, the reason for the increase in kWh usage was because our geyser started using excess electricity and we had it replaced under guarantee in August 2015. Something went wrong with its insulation. We found this out because we measure our geyser and household electricity usage ourselves, and because we started having brown water from time to time.

What the City should be doing is putting everyone on the lifeline tariff who use less than 600 kWh per month, perhaps only giving free kWh to those who earn less than a certain amount. Reason? As an incentive to use less.

A person who is renting should not be penalised by a homeowner who has their house revalued, for example to get at capital in the house.

In this case, the homeowner should pay the extra electricity cost!

In the case where a house is revalued by the City, the homeowner should apply for a revision back to the purchase price of the property.

Just because houses of a similar size in a particular area are considered to have a particular value by the city and estate agents does not mean that your house has the same value.

One of the oldest problems in South Africa is the discrepancy between rates and utility costs; something our new government has overlooked, even as it tries to right the wrongs of the past.

In the early 1900's, the landowners decided that the utility costs should be high whilst the rates should be low. Landowners can own huge tracts of land without paying properly for this area's maintenance, whilst the renter has to pay relatively high utility prices.

This secret can be found in Professor Renfrew Christie's book "Electricity, Industry and Class in South Africa". The book is available online at https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=n3WjRrnNqCUC... Professor Christie published the book in 1984, whilst a political prisoner at the time.

Of-course someone living in their own home is not penalised. Their rates are higher whilst their utility costs are lower and overall their costs are the same.

The benefit of higher rates is that these are local to each city and municipality and can therefore be more equitably shared where they are raised.

VAT is also saved by the homeowner as their utility bills will be lower and VAT is paid on utility bills. Of-course big landowners are VAT registered and don't pay VAT.

Imagine the City saying come live in Cape Town where, if you use less than 600 kWh per month you benefit by paying less for electricity.

This benefits homeowners and business owners, and will create thousands of jobs in the blue economy.

And Capetonians will also get all the other benefits, like better housing, no toll roads, better security, more jobs, more electricity security and etc.