South Africa has been having issues with electricity supply for quite a while now. This has forced Eskom, the national power utility company, to implement load-shedding. The residential sector accounts for about 35% of electricity
on the solar water heating rebate program says that, “More than 38,000 high pressure and 84,000 low pressure systems had been rolled out nationally by end of 2011. This resulted in energy savings of approximately 60GWh/annum. The program also had positive effects on employment creation. South Africa’s solar water heating market expanded from a mere 20 suppliers in 1997 to more than 400 suppliers in 2011.” This progress demonstrated initial success in the implementation of the project.
However, Theo Covary and Karin Kritzinger’s paper notes that by 2015, after 7 years, only 102,498 high pressure solar water heater systems, 11% of the original target, had been installed. The program had been suspended by 2016. Despite the original target not being met, 102,498 units is still quite significant. Keep that 102,498 figure in mind, as we will come back to it later on in this article.