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ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
Solar thermal systems go big in South Africa
“The level of sophistication of these ST systems has
expanded rapidly and today, these systems provide
hot water for large residential institutions, such as
hotels, hospitals, schools, student residences and
even districts. African Solar Thermal Training & Demonstration
Initiative), a regional project focused on capacity
building and the demonstration of solar thermal
solutions in the SADC region. It is funded by the
Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and the OPEC
Fund for International Development (OFID).
“South Africa recently made it into the top 20 largest
ST systems in the world with the installation of two
SOLTRAIN projects – a district heating plant for Wits
University residences in Parktown Johannesburg and a
solar process heat plant for the Klein Karoo International
(KKI) tannery in Oudtshoorn. Both will save millions in
electricity costs over the lifetime of the plants. “In order to apply the knowledge gained during
SOLTRAIN training courses implemented across
the SADC region, 326 demonstration systems were
installed in ‘Solar Thermal Flagship Districts’ to pilot
and demonstrate the different solar thermal applications
available. The total collector area of these systems is 4
621m², corresponding to an installed capacity of 3.2
megawatt thermal (MWth).
“The first of its kind, the Wits Junction district heating
project, combines solar, co-generation and gas heating
technologies, servicing 1 103 students in 14 student
residence buildings with hot water from one centralised
hot water plant room.
“There is an average consumption of 94 000ℓ of
hot water per day. Peak demand is in the morning,
averaging 30% of daily consumption, with a maximum
demand of 28 200ℓ an hour. The system supplies the
entire hot water demand, including kitchens, laundry,
cleaning and other domestic uses.”
SOLTRAIN builds capacity through demo systems
“SANEDI is a critical partner in SOLTRAIN, (Southern
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“The size of these demonstration systems ranges from
small systems with a 2m² collector area and a 150ℓ hot
water tank for single family houses in social housing
areas to the above large-scale systems, with almost
600m² collector area and 60 000ℓ storage tanks for
industrial applications and district heating.
“The annual solar yield of all 326 solar thermal
systems is 3 534MWh, which corresponds to
electricity savings of 3 887MWh per annum and 1
222 tons of avoided CO 2 . The avoided electricity cost
corresponds to R9.9-million, based on City of Cape
Town tariffs in 2019 of 222.39c/kWh plus VAT, which
equals 255.75c/kWh.”
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August 2019 Volume 25 I Number 6