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The Kalkbult solar plant, in the sunny Northern Cape province close to De Aar, uses photovoltic solar panels with a total generating capacity of 75 megawatt.
The solar panels are erected at an angle of around 25 degrees, facing north, to received the maximum hours of light every day. The solar farm should produce around 155 million kilowatt hours per annum given the average number of sunny days in the dry and mostly cloudless part of the country. This is enough power to supply electricity to more than 30 000 households.
The Kalkbult solar array consists of 312 000 solar panels, each generating a maximum of 240 watts of electricity per hour. Typically, solar panels produce electricity for around 7 hours during summer and some 5 hours during winter.
This is only the first of several new solar and other environmetally friendly electricity projects to come on stream in SA. Work on other solar generating plants and wind farms around the country are going ahead at a rapid pace.
Significant increases in prices of oil and coal during the last 10 years have made solar energy more economically viable. The price of electricity has more than doubled in recent years, while the cost of solar panels and related equipment have decreased year after year due to technological improvements.
Specialised solar energy providers say that solar power is increasingly becoming the solution of choice as the capital cost to install a solar system is decreasing and electricity costs are expected to continue to increase. Once installed, solar and wind generating systems produce electricity at virtually no cost.
The result of rising energy prices is that the capital pay-back period of alternative energy sources decreased sharply over the last decade, from around 20 years to only 10 years and, in cases, even less.
Small, private projects are
becoming more popular and are increasingly contributing to SA's electricity
needs as large consumers start to generate their own electricity.
Shaun Harris, owner of MLT Drives in George, says his firm has installed systems with a combined generating capacity of 100 megawatt per hour over the last 5 years since solar has become more popular.
"Farmers are finding it increasingly economical to install solar systems. We recently installed a solar plant to power a grape farmer's irrigation system. He used to pay R1.5m per annum for diesel to run generators to run his water pumps.
"The capital cost of the complete solar system was far less. In this case the pay-back period is less than a year," says Harris.
He showed Fin24 results of the digital control system which shows that the solar array actually produces more electricity during the middle of the day than what is needed. "This excess electricity can be fed back into the national power grid for use by a factory 1000km away."
This is standard practice in many countries, where a few solar panels on your roof or a wind generator might feed electricity back into the grid while homeowners are at work and power consumption is low. In effect, your electricity meter would run backwards.
Unfortunately, SA needs to change legislation to make the "purchase" of electricity from individual suppliers legal. Most municipal meters are capable to do this, but legislation with regards to supply chain management prevents municipalities to take advantage of this opportunity.
The Eastern Cape's first wind farm, close to Jeffrey's Bay, is also nearing completion. This plant is scheduled to come on stream in February next year.
- Fin24
*After chasing money on the JSE for 15 years, Adriaan Kruger is now living a relaxed lifestyle in Wilderness and lectures economics part-time at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
