The Western Cape government has confirmed that there have been shipping and logistic delays that will affect solar installations in the province.
Regan Thaw, spokesperson for the office of the premier, said that the Western Cape would monitor the national roll-out of solar, and see if the province was expected to facilitate any part of the national roll-out.
Thaw said that the province was considering an incentive scheme for SMMEs for alternative energy solutions. He said that SMMEs would be required to source their own suppliers, as the Western Cape government has no suppliers of their own.
Mayco member for energy Beverley van Reenen said they did not supply solar PV systems, but that these were supplied by the market.
“The City does facilitate the authorisation of solar PV systems to ensure that they are safely and legally connected to the grid. The processing period for the authorisation of the solar PV applications is currently longer than normal due to the high demand,” Van Reenen said.
Independent energy economist Lungile Mashele said that South Africa had seen solar prices increase substantially since Covid-19.
“In the last year prices have stabilised and have decreased marginally. This is largely as a result of China opening their economy following the zero Covid policy. China manufactures over 80% of solar panels globally. That backlog from China, including shipping and a surge in demand in South Africa, will lead to increased solar panel and installation prices,” she said.
Dr Stanford Chidziva, the director of Green Hydrogen at the South African Institute for Advanced Material Chemistry at UWC, said there was a considerable energy demand in South Africa, heightened by the current Eskom load-shedding crisis.
“This has alternately created a demand for alternative energy. Solar energy has emerged as one of the possible energy solutions to address the current energy demand both for domestic and industrial consumption.
“Currently, South Africa is importing solar panels mainly from overseas countries like China, Japan, Canada, etc. There is a possible niche for local entrepreneurs to play a critical role,” he said.
Chidziva said the challenge was the high capital cost to set up manufacturing plans for solar panel production.
“The capital cost of setting up a manufacturing plant versus the cost of importing and selling to the domestic South African market is high. It has been noted that importation is way cheaper than investing in local production. The high capital cost is also caused by the strength of our local currency to the euro/USD/pound. Most of the plant equipment needs to be imported,” he said.
Chidziva said geographical locations with weak radiation were not ideal to use solar energy because the solar system will not be able to harvest enough solar energy for domestic or industrial use.
“Solar energy can be a reality to communities which have good solar radiation like in the Northern Cape, Western Cape, Free State and Limpopo provinces,” he said.
Versofy SOLAR, a solar installation company said in a statement that there was a growing demand for solar, having received more than 5 000 enquiries since January.
Olga Prinsloo, the project co-ordinator at SomeWatt solar in Cape Town said the demand was being met by the supply, and there had been a sufficient supply of panels because they get their supplies locally.