African Energy
15
<< Continued from page 13
Eskom, as the country’s major power generator
and distributor, wants to keep control and sell
as much electricity as it can. It is their raison
d’être. Saving energy is not in their interest
and when power-saving campaigns have been
launched (2008–2014), it was only ever to
help them meet their evening peak constraints
(MW peak) — not to save consumption (GWhs).
The recent and ongoing fight between Eskom
and the large-scale renewable wind and solar
electric farms comes down to their financial
models. Why connect these renewable projects
to the grid when (now that Eskom has a surplus
of power) they can supply coal fire generated
kWh and make a profit from it. Clean energy is,
despite anything Eskom says, in conflict. End
user renewables, solar water heaters, and solar
electric generation (photovoltaic, or PV) are also
in conflict with Eskom’s models and potentially
can save even more than the large-scale
renewable energy generation. A kWh saved is
even greater than a clean kWh generated, as
it does not suffer transmission losses. A kWh
saved by the solar end user directly benefits
the end user financially. From a carbon saving
perspective, it is the most efficient of all.
So, money is the conflicting problem. When
large investments into areas such as nuclear
generation (which is almos t certainly not needed
for another 20 years, if ever) are brought into the
equation, the opportunities for enrichment to a
favoured few is obvious.
Money is also the biggest problem for adoption of
end user renewables. South Africa’s demographics
show remarkably low levels of savings and most
of the population living on credit from month
to month. Simply put, not enough is left at the
end of each month to even consider solar as an
option and as an outright purchase. Much higher
priorities include education, bond payments, car
finance, medical insurance, and holidays.
Solar water heaters and solar PV are also not an
attractive proposition to lenders. Their concern
has been a lack of a second-hand or pre-owned
market and being left with a defaulting customer.
The asset on a stand-alone basis (without
recourse to other security) is not the same as
a car or photocopier, for example, which can
readily be sold at auction. In my opinion, this is
a spurious argument in that if the solar system
is saving money it will always have a value,
even if somebody has to remove it. The lack of
easy credit combined with high interest rates
has made it difficult to go solar, even when
consumers know what they want to buy. Solar
water heaters have also suffered from associated
reputational risk. Perceived as being expensive,
the supplier and installer industry has done
itself few favours by selling systems without
any real meaningful information as to what the
solar system will do, or the financial information
relating to the system’s performance.
Will solar sales accelerate in the future?
Inevitably, as the price of electricity rises, the
real cost of solar will reduce in monetary terms,
with improving returns on investment and
faster payback. This, in turn, will lead to greater
opportunities. For example, companies could
offer finance to their employees, where the
monthly instalment on a solar purchase is just a
deduction from their salary.
Sadly, with a power company that has little
interest beyond their primary mandate,
assistance in helping consumers to embrace
renewables will be limited — money, or
rather the shortage of it, will be the greatest
impediment to nationwide adoption. PA
Lifting solar power up
Johnson Crane Hire has an established reputation for handling small
lifting on a wide range of construction and utility projects’ sites.
Commenting on this, Peter Yaman, sales executive
at Johnson Crane Hire, says the ready access to a
range of mobile cranes positions the company well
to undertake lifting in remote regions.
“Planning of lifting activities is one of our strengths and
this enables us to dovetail the lifting with the individual
construction programmes to ensure optimum productivity
for the individual solar power contractors.”
completely familiarised with the application on the solar
power farms.
“In addition to this, we differentiate ourselves by
providing all customers throughout South Africa and
neighbouring countries with a total lifting solution
delivered through our SMART (safety, maintenance,
availability, reliability, and total cost effectiveness) brand
promise,” Yaman says. PA
Not only are the company’s operators well versed in
the actual operation of the cranes, but they are also
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
Lifting the various components, including handling the
imported sections that make up the composite panel
structures, needs to be done with care. Yaman says
this is where pre-planning and the use of skilled and
experienced operators plays a key role.
June 2017 Volume 23 I Number 4