Solar water
heating:
where are we
headed in 2017?
By James Green
SOLENERGY
TheThe
benefits
heatingHeating
water with
SolarofWater
solar energy rathercluthan
fossil
Manufacturer’s
sterwith
of South
fuels are irrefutable. Yet, several
Africa
(SWH-MANCOSA) was
obstacles stand in the way of largerecently formed to address
scale adoption in South Africa, with
the interest
local and
the consumer’s
lack of ofawareness
manufacturers
education
being prime.
The lack of education and awareness about the benefits of
solar water heating is the main obstacle the industry faces.
Despite Eskom now having a surplus of
electricity for the near foreseeable future,
the cost of electricity continues to rise.
Added to this are the new coal-fired
builds, Medupi and Kusile, which have to
be paid for, along with the Ingula Pumped
Storage Scheme: a pumped-storage
hydroelectricity scheme in the escarpment
of the Drakensberg range. Recent media
reports have stated that costs here have
spiralled from R8-billion to R36-billion.
November 2016 Volume 22 I Number 9
To meet expectations for 2030 even at current
levels of 42GW, older power stations will need
to be replaced and nuclear may have to be
considered for another 9.6GW — at a cost of a
trillion rand. All of this point to increasing prices.
It’s just a question of how much, how soon.
Grid parity takes place when an alternative energy
source can generate power at a levelised cost of
electricity (LCOE) less than or equal to the price of
buying power from the grid. By 2016, grid parity
for some solar water heaters had already been
reached. To put it another way: it is cheaper to
heat water with solar than with fossil fuels. With
payback as little at 2½ years and a cost per kWh
of R0.50, averaged by dividing the capital installed
cost by the expected kWh savings over 10 years, it
is a lot less than the current charge of more than
R2.00 per kWh — and increasing.
Although some solar water heaters (SWH) may
have more attractive ROIs than others may, they
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