In 2017, the South African Department of Energy (DoE) released Schedule 2 to the Electricity Act of 2006, which revised the licensing and registration requirements for categories of generators. Under these new rules, generators smaller than 1MW are exempted from having to obtain a license but need to be registered with NERSA. Every form of home electricity generation – including solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and backup generators – will have to be registered with the government under draft rules published by the National Energy Regulator of SA (NERSA) for public comment. The proposed SSEG rules were published for public comment by NERSA on its website on 26 April 2018.

These rules have yet to be implemented. The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) called on NERSA to scrap these rules, and in May 2018 that is exactly what they did. Nevertheless, the City of Cape Town has implemented these rules in their municipality as of May 2019, and the City of Tshwane has followed suit in 2021. This was done as a pre-emptive move towards legislation that is on hold now.

OUTA gave on their newsroom platform the following statement.“The Department of Energy (DoE) should not interfere with the safety and specifications of the requirements or standards of embedded energy generation, as this is best overseen by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) and other regulatory bodies who often take their guide from other countries where the specifications for solar panels, generators, wind turbines and other systems have already been set.” Ronal Chauke, OUTA’s Energy Portfolio Manager said “The administration required by these draft rules is cumbersome and unnecessary. Government should work with its citizens to promote access to reliable energy rather than overburdening them with costs and administrative requirements.”

IN SOUTH AFRICA, THERE ARE NO OFFICIAL REGULATORY RULES ENFORCED BY THE GOVERNMENT THAT NEED TO BE ADHERED TO WHEN IT COMES TO PV SYSTEM INSTALLATIONS.

Homeowners installing solar energy systems must comply with the registration requirements applicable in certain areas, but official conformity codes regarding certain aspects of an installation do not currently exist. This could be a big problem. With specific South African PV industry regulation not yet in place, it is an unfortunate fact that many smaller “installers” are not adequately qualified and do not prescribe to any standards. This can lead to dangerous situations that can even lead to electrical fires. While there are compulsory wiring standards for general electrical installations, there is no dedicated national standard for PV installations yet. Ask your installer about the installation standards they follow.

The standards and quality management are driven by the industry and even quality assurance is achieved in this manner. You can also play an important part in ensuring that your PV system is true to the industry standards and requirements. Collecting as much information as you can about this aspect could save you a lot of heartaches when it comes to the safety and performance of your system. Let’s look at some rules and regulations that are being practiced by reputable installers.

At the core of every PV system is an electrical system that carries electricity generated by your PV panels to your wall outlets to be utilised in every electrical need that you might have. As such, installers should always. And when you are connected to the grid, you have the extra responsibility to ensure the grid is protected and not compromised by your PV system. Every electrical system has the risk of electrical shock, arcing, and fire when not correctly installed; your PV system is no different and installers should always follow the Electrical Installation Regulations of the OHS Act. The following errors should be avoided:
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The Photovoltaic (PV) market has always been an exciting one. The growth and new solar power technology developed has left even the biggest sceptic thinking twice about the opportunities that will arise and the goals that will be achieved by this amazing technology. In a world where Eskom has left us disappointed and in financial trouble time and time again, PV has been a way out of the sticky situations created by our utility provider. South Africa has adopted solar with such vigour primarily due to the country’s overburdened and monopolised energy infrastructure. And the innovation and development of this technology is a very exciting thing to observe and be a part of. In this article, I will look a bit closer at new PV technology and what could be possible in the future.

Less than 2% of the world’s electricity has come from solar power, but new inventions are likely to change that. 

You might think that vast, arid deserts are the perfect place to install solar farms. After all, desert sunlight is intense and you rarely have to worry about clouds. Plus, there is plenty of wide-open space. But there is one problem – solar panels don’t do well with heat. Solar panels work most efficiently at temperatures below 25°C. This is because when solar panels get hot, the electrons pick up that extra energy from their environment, which puts them in a more excited state. And when they are already excited, they have less room to absorb energy from the sun. They work best in moderate climates where, unfortunately, it can sometimes be hard to find the space to set up a giant field of solar panels.

But since the 2000s, countries around the world have been implementing what seems to be a win-win solution. A system called agrivoltaics. In agrivoltaics, solar panels get installed over crop fields. That way there is no need to clear extra space just for the panels. On top of that, the crops help keep things cool as they release water through their leaves. The release of water works just like sweating – evaporating water removes heat from a plant, which brings down the plant’s temperature and also cools the surrounding area. So they keep an optimal environment for panels to work noticeably more efficient.

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​First project in commercial housing
Once the design has been completed, the system can be planned within about ten days. The first glass
balustrades with integrated solar films went into operation in May at condominiums in Stuttgart
Möhringen. “We are pleased to demonstrate how well our balustrades perform in this project. This
proves that our technology also works excellently in commercial housing,” adds Issa.

Italian inverter manufacturer, Enertronica Santerno S.p.A, has announced that its Board of Directors has approved an investment plan for the expansion of the manufacturing activities in South Africa. Enertronica Santerno has been actively operating in the South African market for close to ten years now.

The AIM Italia listed company says it will invest around Euro 1 million (R17 million) in South Africa, spread over three years. The investment provides for the capability of manufacturing inverters for both standard photovoltaic applications and for electricity storage systems, for a total power of almost 1 GW and maximum production capacity of more than 500 MW per year. 

“After a period of marked slowdown, the South African energy market is moving once again towards a constant growth pace over the coming few years, due to the renewed commitment of the public authorities, with investment plans dedicated to renewable energy,” the company said. 

The project will be implemented starting from a production structure established over several years of operations in the country and which has proven to be highly reliable and successful, so that the Group will be able to deliver locally assembled inverters by the end of 2021. The whole Investment will be financed through internal resources of the Group with no impacts on the level of indebtedness of the same.

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The company built a production plant in 2013 for the manufacturing of supporting structures for photovoltaic panels which supplied steel works for around 400 MW of panels. Subsequently, inverter-based power stations for a total capacity of around 600 MW were locally built with a 50% local content, making Enertronica Santerno one of the leading local producers in South Africa in its own market sector. 

The purpose of the Investment is the implementation of local manufacturing of inverters for renewable energy (photovoltaic) and electrical systems with storage, in order to supply products with a local content higher than 40%, exceeding, therefore, the minimum requirements recently imposed within the REE-IPP (Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme) Bid 5 framework, where inverters are included in the list of components with a minimum required Local Content, as specified in Appendix 5A – Designated Local Content (Economic Development Obligations), ED Sub-Element 200-SR-03B.

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THE recent announcement by President Ramaphosa of the new 100 MW threshold for embedded electricity generation, up from just 1 MW, was welcome news for many companies. However, while big businesses are jumping to investigate their self-generation options, there are many others who are destined to remain in the dark.

The ability to invest in on-site power generation is a luxury afforded to mature businesses with reliable cash flow – and a lot of space. A clear example of this is the 40 MW solar plant planned for Gold Fields’ South Deep mine in Gauteng, with a R660-million price tag and spanning the area of 200 soccer fields.

“Yes, R660 million is a significant investment, but so are the benefits of operating our own solar plant. Unaffordable and unrelenting Eskom tariff increases, and unreliable supply of electricity is a major risk for all mining companies,” comments Martin Preece, EVP of Gold Fields South Africa. The solar plant will be funded from the mine’s positive cash-flows over the next two years, and will generate 22% of the average electricity consumption of the mine.

“Other mining companies have developed or are in the process of developing their own solar plants,” says Preece.

This is great news for the sustainability of the mining industry, both in terms of business and the environment. But what about the thousands of other companies and SMMEs in South Africa? They now face two challenges: 1) a lack of resources for their own self-gen project and 2) the ongoing problems with Eskom – which may just get worse as many of the utility’s blue-chip customers get off the grid.

The solar farm at South Deep will translate into a R120 million annual saving of the cost of electricity for the mine. That is R120-million less to Eskom, which is already facing dire financial constraints. Add to that, the Deep South solar plant is planned at less than half the newly announced threshold for generation capacity. A single 100 MW plant could deprive Eskom of R300-million in business.

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Preece has confirmed that since the announcement, Gold Fields is now investigating upping capacity to 70 MW. Many mines are sure to follow suit, potentially generating billions of Rands worth of their own power each year. While many stakeholders have hailed the new regulations as key in alleviating grid pressure and give Eskom room to complete much-needed maintenance and construction, it could well have the opposite effect. Losing business to self-generation might worsen Eskom’s woes, and grid-reliant businesses will be caught in the crossfire.

The “good” news is: this won’t happen overnight. Preece says, “It will take years for all the planned renewable projects to be commissioned. Until then, the industry will still be solely dependent on Eskom, and the utility’s high tariffs and continued load-shedding will be a major obstacle.”

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In this increasingly connected world, where everything from our coffee machines to our thermostats is becoming “smart,” it should come as no surprise that the IoT is starting to play a role in solar panel installation.

IoT— which stands for “the Internet of Things” — refers to any device that can connect to another device (such as a smartphone) via the internet. In other words, when you take an ordinary device and connect it to the internet, it gets an added level of intelligence that enables it to “communicate” in real-time with other devices.

The IoT has promising applications in solar energy generation, since it can mitigate the higher cost of maintenance and regulate power usage. Let’s see how solar solutions can be upgraded by IoT and how it can help you better manage your assets.

The integration of the IoT in a solar energy system 
To harness the IoT in renewable energy production, the generation, transmission, and distribution equipment are outfitted with smart sensors. This enables you to monitor and control the working of the equipment remotely via real-time connectivity.

A solar energy system for commercial use comes with some kind of monitor, which may be a physical monitor at your home or an app you can access online. Some providers don’t offer a monitoring service, in which case you can track solar energy production through the system’s inverter itself.

With a traditional sensor installed in the solar system, you can keep tabs on how your system is working, including your solar panels’ daily energy production. It also allows you to identify particular issues in your system should they crop up.

The IoT provides the same functions, but when your energy system is part of a massive network of similar devices, its newfound cognition improves the efficiency of the entire system. You can now automatically monitor and control a variety of elements in the system. 

The high-tech sensors collect and send large amounts of real-time data from energy meters and inverters which is then stored in the cloud. The data is processed and presented to you in the form of SMS notification, reports, alerts, mails, notifications and useful insights. 

Insights you can get from an IoT-connected solar energy system
The solar unit’s performance
Health of the PV panels, batteries, and overall system
Your energy usage
Actual vs. modeled energy production
The energy you supply to the grid
When and how you’re loading your system
System faults diagnostics
Predictive analytics
An IoT monitoring system will alert you as soon as anything goes wrong with your solar system. You don’t need to worry about issues going unnoticed as the installer will quickly diagnose and resolve any issues, which will reduce downtime. 

A final word about connectivity requirements
For a successful IoT enabled solar solution, it requires the availability of consistent internet connectivity. A wireless or fibre internet solution will serve as the backbone of the IoT features and functions, linking together all devices and systems. 

A high-speed, uncapped, low-latency internet connection is able to cope with big spikes of incoming data, making it the ideal fit for IoT purposes. This type of internet solution is less prone to poor network performance, which could cause you to miss important data indicating performance issues.

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Renewable energy is fast becoming a global trend. From a South African point of view, we have not seen the same growth as we currently see globally, and this is due to certain stumbling blocks.
Now, with the newly released Integrated Resource Plan, there is a marked increase in the focus on renewable energy in South Africa. The aforementioned stumbling blocks are moving out of the way and other solar companies will have the opportunity to compete in the market.

When mobile phones first became available, nobody fully understood the importance of the new technology. Many people still used their landlines to phone one another. But only a few short years later, mobile phones radically overhauled the traditional telco industry. I believe that the same will happen within the renewable energy space, particularly the solar industry. Distributed generation, i.e. the ability to generate the power where you need it, came to completely change the future landscape of utilities and this is only the beginning. I will talk more in-depth about the above points in the coming months.

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Solar has been hailed as one of the breakthrough solutions that will drive economic development in Africa. Experts have identified stand-alone solar as a cost-effective solution to the electrification challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where 548 million people still live without electricity [1]. In recognition of this, governments in countries like Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia and Malawi have added solar home systems (SHS) to their national electrification plans. Some of these governments have gone ahead to roll out programmes like the Solar Naija that aims to reach 5 million people with SHS and promote local assembly for the same.

The largest addressable markets for SHS in SSA are found in Nigeria and Ethiopia where 77 million and 60 million people respectively, do not have access to electricity. Other significant markets are found in Tanzania – 35 million people and Uganda – 32 million people, who lack electricity [2]. The total unelectrified population for Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe stands at 51 million people.
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Despite these prospects, the stand-alone solar sector, like all other sectors, was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Sales for SHS in different SSA countries dropped by 28% – 49% between December 2019 and June 2020. In Senegal, the decrease was mainly on cash sales while pay-as-you-go (PAYG) remained stable. Due to measures put in place to contain the pandemic, economic activity in SSA was projected to decline by 3.3% in 2020. The World Bank estimates that 40 million people are likely to slide into extreme poverty in Africa [3]. This means the progress that had been made with energy access in the continent will be affected and the number of people who cannot afford SAS will increase. Consequently, governments, investors, and development partners need to collaborate to address the affordability constraints for consumers and avail relief funding for SAS companies [4],[5].

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

How to convince someone to get smart energy? We took many questions from solar installers who were eager to understand how Smappee and more broadly, energy monitoring technology can help expand their business beyond their core solar markets and how best to sell their expanding solutions to their customers.

We understand that smart solar+consumption monitoring is unfamiliar to most consumers and even installers, so we wanted to provide installers with some suggestions for introducing smart energy monitoring to their customers, both old and new.

When to introduce smart energy monitoring? Find out the three points in the solar sales cycle where solar installers can introduce smart energy monitoring such as the Smappee:

1. During the initial home assessment
Some customers may be just learning about solar and energy efficiency with the purpose of saving money on their utility bill, but they may not be aware of where they’re wasting electricity or how they might be using it. To help customers be aware of their energy usage, a Smappee partner installer can install the Smappee energy monitoring system for several weeks and set a time in the future to go over the data collected. The installation is both quick and simple and Smappee is on hand to support installers to evaluate the valuable takeaways from the initial data captured.

This process will not only allow the installer to help prospect customers see potential energy habits and savings, they’ll also have personal engagements with customers, strengthening the company reputation for being helpful and insightful solar and smart home experts.

If the customer does not want to keep the Smappee monitor, it can be uninstalled in a few minutes and used for another prospect’s home.

2. As part of the initial solar package quote
If a potential customer is ready to go solar and start comparing services and pricing, smart energy monitoring such as Smappee can really help differentiate installers from the pack.

By including Smappee as an added value that’s included in the price, solar installers can offer to turn customers’ solar home into a future-ready smart solar home with intelligent and automated energy monitoring that can accommodate new capabilities as needed and, like solar, will pay for itself over time with improved energy efficiency savings.

3. As an additional service offer
Due to a variety of reasons, from an old roof to too much shading or lack of financing, not everyone is right or ready for solar. When these situations happen, solar installers can still retain a new customer by offering a Smappee energy monitoring system, which can provide valuable energy savings and establish a customer relationship for a future solar or energy storage installation. The same smart home service offering can also be made to old customers who elect against solar monitoring at the time of installation. With the added smart home benefits, the customer may now want monitoring and perhaps add a battery or EV charger, as well. Find out how Smappee helps optimise self-consumption.

We hope these tips will help installers to introduce energy monitoring to their customers. Our Smappee team will continue to provide more business development tips to our partner installers over the coming months.

Find out how Smappee partner, Enaio, convinces prospects of their saving potential, determine the ideal installation and accurately bills his clients, by putting Smappee at the core of his offering.

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