- Title: South Africa's 'silent revolution' as those with cash go solar
- Date: 15th August 2022
- Summary: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (RECENT - AUGUST 3, 2022) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF AERIAL DRONE SHOT SHOWING SOLAR PANELS ON A ROOF MORE OF AERIAL DRONE SHOT SHOWING SOLAR PANELS FINANCIAL PLANNER, PIERRE MOUREAU WALKING INTO HIS HOUSE /CHECKING HIS SOLAR POWER INVERTER MONITORS VARIOUS OF SOLAR INVERTOR BOX (SOUNDBITE) (English) FINANCIAL PLANNER, PIERRE MOUREAU, SAYING: “For me solar is the way to go. Solar is the way to go because it will free our nation. Most of our nation is actually deprived of their basic human rights and that’s to be able to do work whenever, however and for how long they want.†VARIOUS OF MOREAU WORKING IN HIS OFFICE (SOUNDBITE) (English) FINANCIAL PLANNER, PIERRE MOUREAU, SAYING: “The catalyst would have been when we started getting load shedding (blackouts) and I knew then having spoken to some of my clients who are very high up at Eskom that the things were not gonna get better and understanding that if I was going to get ahead in my business I had to something. So, in my business really without technology, you basically can’t do anything nowadays.†MORE OF MOUREAU CHECKING HIS SOLAR BOXES SIGN WRITTEN (English): “Solar PV on roof†SUN SHINING THROUGH TREE VARIOUS OF AERIAL DRONE SHOT SHOWING WORKERS INSTALLING COVERS FOR MORE SOLAR PANELS GRANVILLE ENERGY CEO, TABI TABI WORKING IN HIS OFFICE
- Embargoed: 29th August 2022 10:47
- Keywords: Eskom Solar energy South Africa electricity crisis economic divide solar power
- Location: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
- City: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
- Country: South Africa
- Topics: Africa,Environment
- Reuters ID: LVA001821612082022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Thanks to the solar panels on his roof, Pierre Moureau only notices the blackouts that regularly plunge South Africans into darkness when complaints pop up on his Johannesburg neighbourhood's WhatsApp group.
"For me solar is the way to go. Solar is the way to go because it will free our nation," said the 68-year-old financial planner. "Most of our nation is actually deprived of their basic human rights and that’s to be able to do work whenever, however and for how long they want,†he added.
As a worsening power crisis hobbles Africa's most industrialized economy, provoking public ire, President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to cut through red tape to boost coal-addicted South Africa's use of renewable energy.
But many South Africans are taking matters into their own hands, fueling a massive boom in small-scale solar rooftop installations.
"So, in my business really without technology, you basically can’t do anything nowadays,†said Moureau, whose panels power his home as well as his adjoining office.
In the first five months of this year alone, South Africa imported nearly 2.2 billion rand ($135 million) worth of solar PV panels, according to a Reuters analysis of customs data. That works out to around 750 to 800 megawatts of generating capacity, experts say.
Those panels, once installed, will increase the 2.1 gigawatts of estimated existing small-scale solar capacity by some 40%, surpassing what the government has managed to procure in a decade of its utility-scale solar strategy.
In a country that requires 4 to 6 gigawatts of additional production to end ubiquitous power cuts, most systems remain unregistered and feed nothing back onto the power-starved grid.
And their relatively high-cost means, for now at least, they remain an expensive solution for the well-off, deepening divides in what is already one of the world's most unequal societies.
Despite abundant solar and wind resources, South Africa's government has shown itself to be only luke-warm on renewable energy. Until its relaunch in 2021, a programme of private, utility-scale projects remained frozen for years amid pressure from mining unions.
But the decline of debt-crippled state power utility Eskom, which produces 80% of its power from coal, is pushing South Africans to look for alternatives.
Tabi Tabi has witnessed that first-hand. In just one month last year, his solar company, Granville Energy, received 349 inquiries for rooftop systems. “We hadn’t seen that within a year, we couldn’t understand what was going on, so we stopped all sales activities and we started to analyse the data and we found that there was a huge demand for solar," he said. "People didn’t have trust on Eskom’s ability to solve the problem so they started looking for alternatives.â€
By the time one of his customers, Leigh Driemel, finally decided to install a 42-panel system at her swimming academy last year, her monthly power bill was running to around 26,000 rand and power cuts had begun forcing her to cancel classes. “When we’ve got no power we can't heat the pools, we can’t filter the pools so not only is it a power-heat issue, it’s then also a hygiene issue,†she said. “We’ve got a lot of people through our pool, so we need to have those pumps running and filtering – at least 12 hours a day.â€
She's now insulated against blackouts and has cut her electricity bill by over 40%.
Across South Africa, private residents as well as businesses large and small are making similar calculations.
While banks are beginning to come around, with some now offering dedicated small-scale solar financing products, rooftop systems remain out of reach for most poor South Africans like Prince Mkhize.
He works at a carwash in Alexandra, the sprawling low-income, high-crime township located just across a busy motorway from Sandton - the Johannesburg financial district dubbed "Africa's richest square mile".
When blackouts strike, Mkhize can't run his jet wash or vacuum cleaner and watches disappointed would-be customers come and go. “We’re not that rich, you feel? You can’t just buy solar systems, then you put them on top of the roof and et cetera – the money, that’s the problem,†he said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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