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South Africa Celebrates 150 Days Without Loadshedding [due to Solar Power]

South Africa Celebrates 150 Days Without Loadshedding. New Utility-Scale Solar PV Auction Oversubscribed - CleanTechnica

https://cleantechnica.com/2024/08/24/south-africa-celebrates-150-days-without-loadshedding-new-utility-scale-solar-pv-auction-oversubscribed/

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News! South Africans had been facing increasing electricity rationing (loadshedding) over the past couple of years. The effects of loadshedding on homes and businesses have been brutal, and the South African Reserve Bank says that ... [continued]

South Africa Celebrates 150 Days Without Loadshedding. New Utility-Scale Solar PV Auction Oversubscribed - CleanTechnica

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19865815

The intensive loadshedding experienced by South Africans led to a rush by homes and business to install rooftop solar, backed by battery storage in most cases. South African homes and businesses have added 3,526 MW of rooftop solar in just two years!

2 comments

notaviking

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Bullshit, South African here. Yes solar has helped, mostly the affluent who can afford to install their own private home/business solar power.

But The huge problem what caused it was the ANC, which in May lost its majority in the elections for the first time since 1994.

The state run power company, Eskom, had been run into the ground by the ANC due to corruption and incompetence. In 1997 a white paper showed there would not be enough power by 2007. The only two power stations they build, the two largest in the world if I am not incorrect has been the subject of the state capture commission due to corruption.

In 2024 when it became clear they might lose majority, they exempted themselves from a government policy, which affects all medium to large businesses, which mandated they had to procure anything like maintenance or supplies through a BEE (black economic empowerment) partner. The idea is good but has been abused as rent seeking by the politically connected. So now they are exempt and the OEMs can directly work to fix and maintain the power stations.

Funny due to the loadshedding, or rolling blackouts, we did not have enough power stations working, and as far as I know we were one, if not the only country reaching our Paris accords targets.

But solar power is here to stay, heck even I want it on my own place, due to the cost of electricity becoming unaffordable, if you take a 10 year loan on a solar system, the cost savings will pay of the system itself. This has led to the affluent that can afford high tariffs prices from Eskom switch to Solar, saving them money, but they were used to subsidise electricity prices for the poor. So now the poor must pay more for electricity.

The government did finally approve the independent power producers bill, finally allowing people other than government to produce electricity, and solar looks like a solid option, since we have lots of Sun and the falling prices. So government is loosing grip on the generation market, allowing the free market to make changes.

But I will say it has been so nice to have had uninterrupted power when I come home, not needing to throw out my freezer food, having a hot shower, being able to prepare food on a hot stove under lights instead of a braai/BBQ.

notaviking

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If you want to look at a country that solved their power problem with solar, I heard that is exactly what Vietnam did by incentivising the private generation of power, basically buying extra power from people's solar. But do your own research, not entirely sure of the whole story