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Whether or not you’ve had the luxury of circumventing the effects of load shedding, we’ve all begun to notice more and more South African homes decked with shiny solar panels.

Eskom has been making promises to South Africans with a Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPP) but clearly underestimated the resourcefulness of citizens who are tired of waiting for the lights to turn back on.

With this ambitious government project, 2 200MW of additional power has been added to the country’s grid. That may seem like a lot, but gatvol citizens and businesses are turning to the sunshine to show up the government’s feeble efforts.

A whopping 4 400MW of new solar panel technology is now being contributed to South Africa’s power grid by proactive locals. That’s an impressive 349% increase in the country’s total private solar energy!

Image: M Solar Power Distribution

Even though we can be proud of the ‘maak-a-plan‘ attitude of Saffas investing in solar, Professor Anton Eberhard of the Future Powers Lab has commented that this move to alternative energy production is yet another reflection of our dissatisfaction and disappointment in Eskom.

With an announcement from Eskom earlier this year that Cape Town City will pay out solar users for their excess power, as well as last year’s move to prepaid solutions for solar customers, it’s starting to look like the smart move is to make use of our vibrant SA sunbeams.

That being said, it’s not as simple as flipping a switch to get on the solar side: now that it’s winter, issues like cloud cover and weather damage are real concerns for alternative energy users. It’s also costing South Africans who want to move over to solar a pretty penny to escape the clutches of Eskom’s darkness. BusinessTech explains that just in the first three months of this year, R3,6 billion has been spent on importing solar panels.

Even if you don’t have the Randelas to fork out for solar, those South Africans who can harness the sun to keep the lights on deserve a pat on the back for refusing to let Eskom control their power schedule.

Every bit of alternative energy being fed into the country’s grid means more juice in the proverbial tank and less load-shedding for us!

[source:thecitizen&businesstech]