President Cyril Ramaphosa says that the government is pulling on every resource it has to get power onto the grid as a matter of extreme urgency.

However, he said that the ‘energy action plan’ – announced six months ago – could not be implemented overnight and that measures would take time to yield results.

Writing his weekly letter to the public, Ramaphosa said that load shedding in the country is a result of a ‘perfect storm’ of various factors hitting all at once, including a lack of investment in new generating capacity, poor Eskom power plant maintenance, corruption, criminality, sabotage, rising debt and a lack of skills.

However, he acknowledged that South Africans no longer want to hear excuses.

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In an attempt to fight back the onslaught of rolling blackouts, Ramaphosa said that Eskom’s singular focus is improving plant performance – while the government is also trying to find sources of new generating capacity.

One major source of new generation is rooftop solar panels on houses and businesses, he said.

Ramaphosa said that work would soon be completed on a pricing structure that will allow customers to sell surplus electricity from rooftop solar panels into the grid.

“To incentivise greater uptake of rooftop solar, Eskom will develop rules and a pricing structure – known as a feed-in tariff – for all commercial and residential installations on its network.”

Designated local content for solar panels has been reduced from 100% to 30% to alleviate constraints.

On Sunday (22 January) Eskom chair Mpho Makwana also noted that rooftop solar was one of the various strategies the power utility was looking to leverage to help mitigate the crisis.

Makwana said that plans around the rollout of rooftop solar are expected to be detailed in the coming weeks.

Read more...........>>>>>>

​Ford in Partnership with SolarAfrica, Embarks on Renewable Energy Programme for Silverton Assembly Plant, Vision to be 100% Green by 2024

There are various finance solutions available for either home or commercial applications.

​SAAEA have partnered with an international rooftop financiers for Small to Medium sized Businesses (SMEs) across Africa.
We aim to free up capital for businesses as well as reduce carbon emissions. Our uniquely innovative product reduces costs, provides liquidity and generates maximum long term value for companies. The model provides electricity at a lower tariff than the businesses existing tariff, generating immediate cash savings whilst only paying for power you use
Projects from 50KW to 2MW Rooftop and Ground mounted.
Installations can be done by approved or appointed EPC contractors.

- Pay only for the power generated
- No bank funding required
- Early settlement
- Simple agreement
- No maintenance or operational risk
- Ownership transfer 

​They will operate and maintain the solar PV system supplying solar PV electricity either at a discount to the prevailing grid tariff for a term up to 13 years, or at a premium to obtain an accelerated payback over a shorter period.
The flexibility of the model being adapted to our customer's unique requirements enables companies to benefit from cheap solar PV power, and to utilise green energy, without being distracted from core business activities.
They will take operational and solar risk on the system during the contract term. Clients pay only for the power generated.
At the end of the contract term customers have the option of continuing to utilise the system or to take ownership of the solar PV system at no additional cost.
​

​Contact us for more info..... +2771 637 8466   alwyn@saaea.org

​On Tesla's first-quarter earnings call on Monday, CEO Elon Musk answered a question about why Tesla had jacked up the price of its Solar Roof by as much as 70% for customers awaiting installation.
"We did find that we basically made some significant mistakes in assessment of difficulty of certain roofs," he said, adding that the "complexity of roofs varies dramatically."
"Some roofs are literally two times or three times easier than other roofs. So you just can't have a one-size-fits-all situation," he said.

"If a roof has a lot of protuberances, or if the roof — sort of the core structure of the roof is rotted out or is not strong enough to hold the Solar Roof, then the cost can be double, sometimes three times what our initial quotes were," he added.
​Musk confirmed The Verge's reporting that customers who weren't happy with the new quote could get their deposits refunded.
He said that despite the price hikes, demand for the Solar Roof remained strong — though he did not clarify whether this was from new customers or from customers awaiting installation who had agreed to the higher prices.
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Cape Town - An application to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) for a licence to generate solar electricity at Old Mutual Park, which could take the site in Pinelands off the electricity grid, has caught both the Province and the City unawares.

A company called 35 Degrees Limited put out a notice notifying residents of Pinelands, Thornton and Maitland of its intention to set up a solar power generation facility at Old Mutual Park.

According to the notice: “All interested parties and/or any member of the public may lodge written objections with Nersa, within 14 days from the date of this publication. Such objections must be in a form of an affidavit and must be directed to Nersa.

“The licence application is available for inspection at Pinelands Public Library and interested parties have been asked to contact Wilhelm Cronje on telephone number 021 530 7160,” said the notice.

The plan is for Old Mutual Park on Jan Smuts Drive in Pinelands to leave the electricity grid and generate its own power via a 4.9 MW Solar photovoltaic (PV) generation plant. This move comes three years after Old Mutual went off the water grid with its its own water filtration plant in 2018.

Asked whether the City was aware of the application, Mayco member for energy and climate change Phindile Maxiti said: “No, as far as we know at this stage, this seems to be a plant for own generation and use by a private firm and does not directly pertain to the City of Cape Town.

“In general, the City welcomes all investment, big or small, into renewable energy as every bit helps to change our course to more affordable, cleaner, equitable and secure energy of supply and diversification of our energy mix away from the sole reliance on Eskom,” said Maxiti.

Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC David Maynier said: “We are aware of the investment in solar PV that Old Mutual has already made on their Old Mutual site. However, we were not aware of the application. However, we support it.”

Maynier said: “In our aim to become more energy-resilient in the Western Cape, we have been supporting businesses investing in solar PV since 2015.

“Enabling businesses to build their own energy resilience through the use of solar PV allows for greater cost efficiencies for the business and also contributes to growth of the green economy in the province,” he said.

The move by Old Mutual comes as the Stellenbosch Municipality announced it had launched a joint scientific investigation into alternate energy sources with Stellenbosch University and the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in a bid to eliminate load shedding.

Municipality spokesperson Stuart Grobbelaar said: “This puts Stellenbosch in the lead to potentially become the first municipality in the country to eliminate load shedding.”

Kigeni Energy director Gavin Goldblatt said: “Both Kigeni and Old Mutual are excited to be helping the City of Cape Town and the South African economy to resolve the ongoing power supply problems and price hikes through building the largest rooftop solar power generation plant in the Western Cape.”

“President Ramaphosa has specifically requested private involvement of this nature and promised expedited license approvals and we are confident that, as we have met all application requirements, Nersa will swiftly provide us with our license and the City will assist us with connecting to the grid,” said Goldblatt.    Source.......

The City of Cape Town welcomes the implementation of the feed-in tariff for all small-scale embedded generation systems (SSEG), for existing and new solar photovoltaic systems (PV). This now also includes a sweetener of 25c per kWh that customers with these power generators are able to receive when they feed their excess power into the electricity grid. The City’s feed-in tariff is one of the highest in the country to encourage the feed in of excess electricity into the City’s grid. The City believes the incentive is vital to boost the uptake of SSEGs and to help Cape Town move increasingly towards renewable energy.

The feed-in tariff, including the new additional 25c per kWh incentive will be valid until 30 June 2022.

‘We are moving in the right direction and towards the future the City is aiming to enable: one that has more diversity and security of supply from renewable, cleaner and more affordable energy sources.

‘The feed-in tariff works when customers are net consumers of electricity over a rolling 12-month period. They must therefore consume more electricity from the network than what they put back in over the course of a year. The feed-in tariff offsets their electricity bill and, while they will never receive money from the City, the excess power that is generated back into the City’s grid, will be used to balance out their month’s bill.

‘Importantly, to determine whether a system is grid-tied, meaning if it is connected to the grid and can feed in excess electricity, or whether a system is off-grid, meaning it is electrically completely isolated from the grid, all solar PV systems must be registered. Registration is also a safety and legal requirement and tells the City where a system is connected and confirms the quality of the installation. This reduces the risk of staff and contractors being electrocuted when working on the network,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy and Climate Change, Councillor Phindile Maxiti.

Read more......

​SAAEA have partnered with an international rooftop financier for Small to Medium sized Businesses (SMEs) across Africa.
We aim to free up capital for businesses as well as reduce carbon emissions. Our uniquely innovative product reduces costs, provides liquidity and generates maximum long term value for companies. The model provides electricity at a lower tariff than the businesses existing tariff, generating immediate cash savings whilst only paying for power you use
Projects from 50KW to 2MW Rooftop and Ground mounted.

​Pay only for the power generated
- No bank funding required
- Early settlement
- Simple agreement
- No maintenance or operational risk
- Ownership transfer 
​
They will operate and maintain the solar PV system supplying solar PV electricity either at a
discount to the prevailing grid tariff for a term up to 13 years, or at a premium to obtain an
accelerated payback over a shorter period.
The flexibility of the model being adapted to our customer's unique requirements enables
companies to benefit from cheap solar PV power, and to utilise green energy, without being
distracted from core business activities.
They will take operational and solar risk on the system during the contract term. Clients pay only
for the power generated.
At the end of the contract term customers have the option of continuing to utilise the system or to
take ownership of the solar PV system at no additional cost.

Contact us for more info..... 02771 637 8466   alwyn@saaea.org

Shopping centre developer Flanagan & Gerard Property Development and Investment has invested R16-million in the installation of solar plants at its malls, in an effort to save energy and reduce its carbon footprint.
So far, about 3 MVA of solar energy generation capacity has been installed at three of the company’s co-owned shopping centres, namely Vaal Mall, Middleburg Mall and Springs Mall.

The developer is also planning to add a solar plant to its co-owned Mall of the North, which should be live before the end of the year.

Additionally, Highveld Mall will introduce solar to its energy mix early next year, increasing the total solar energy capacity at Flanagan & Gerard’s retail assets to more than 5 MVA.

All of the centres fitted so far have rooftop solar installations, while Vaal Mall has a carport installation.

“We bring these shopping centres in line with the Flanagan & Gerard philosophy of making a positive environmental impact by using renewable resources,” said MD Paul Gerard.

He added that although South Africa was growing at a rapid rate in the alternative energy sector, it was not growing fast enough to relieve some of the pressure currently experienced by State-owned power utility Eskom.

“The private sector has a responsibility to continue accelerating the expansion of renewable energy,” Gerard highlighted.

Currently, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa grants independent solar generation for installations up to 1 MVA. Anything over this requires a generation licence, and only a certain number of licences are issued each year.

Flanagan & Gerard is in the process of applying for additional licences for their malls to enable additional installations in future.

Future solar plant installations are anticipated for Ballito Junction, Thavhani Mall and Morningside Shopping Centre.
Source....

Utility bosses believe that the risk of electricity consumers going off-grid and using it only as occasional backup will increase significantly in the next two years.

That’s according to a new study from Accenture, in which 95 per cent of utilities agreed that the deployment of distributed generation technologies like rooftop solar is increasing faster than utilities can build new grid capacity to handle it in high-demand areas.

The proportion of both residential and commercial consumers with rooftop solar PV in the markets modelled in the report could exceed 15 per cent by 2036 in some parts of the world, such as California in the US.

And Accenture says that this trend is likely to continue to affect net electricity demand growth for the foreseeable future.

“Distribution businesses have had a tough time in recent years with weak demand, which is one reason why grid operators’ profits have been squeezed,” said Stephanie Jamison, a managing director at Accenture who leads its Transmission and Distribution business.

“The proliferation of distributed generation changes electricity demand profiles, potentially diminishing total demand without necessarily reducing peak demand. Successful distributed generation integration will require substantial investments in new connections and grid reinforcement to modernise the network and sustain the same level of reliability and safety and secure operations.”

The study surveyed 150 executives across 25 countries as part of Accenture’s Digitally Enabled Grid research programme.

It found that increased deployment of distributed generation will “complicate utilities’ operations, requiring distribution utilities to act now to avoid the excessive grid-reinforcement spending required to host new distributed generation energy flows”.

​According to Accenture modelling, some markets could generate substantial capital reinforcement cost savings simply through better identification of local constraints on the distribution network. A 10 per cent improved accuracy in distributed generation forecasts, resulted in projected savings of 15-28 per cent in New York, 14-18 per cent in California, 14-15 per cent in Australia, and 11-12 per cent in both the UK and The Netherlands.

Indeed, distributed generation integration was ranked as the second-highest priority area as a cost-saving opportunity, selected by 59 per cent of respondents as one of their top five choices.

The top priority, chosen by 61 per cent of respondents, was reducing supply chain unit costs through improved forecasting of materials and service requirements.

​Cape Town’s residents may be happy to know that the registration for solar photovolactic (PV) systems has been moved from February 28 to May 31, as the City has noted residents may need more time to complete the process.

“There is no charge for the registration of solar PV systems. A fee will only be applied for failure to register the system by 31 May 2019,” the City said in a statement. “The registration tells the City where a system is connected and confirms the quality of the installation so that staff and contractors are not electrocuted when working on the network.”

A national legislation draft will soon rule that the formal registration of a small-scale embedded generation system become mandatory.

“It has always been a legal requirement that systems that generate electricity and are connected to the City’s electricity network be authorised by the City prior to being connected,” the City said. “This includes solar PV systems that generate electricity. It has however taken some time for South Africa to develop national standards to connect PV installations safely.”

In the absence of national standards, the City developed interim standards for PV systems to be safely and legally connected to the grid.

“The main reason that registration is required is to ensure the safety of our staff and to supply electricity to all customers at certain quality standards. Information on where these systems exist can also be used for electricity demand control, quality of supply management and for planning future investment in electricity infrastructure,” Mayoral Committee Member for Energy and Climate Change Councillor Phindile Maxiti said. “We sincerely hope that our residents will make use of all of the assistance on offer with the registration process. It is very clear that we are moving towards a system of national registration and it is the City’s intention as far as possible to assist its residents with this transition within the confines of legislation.”

​Read more....