President Jacob Zuma today launches the government's roll-out of solar water heaters, a programme that industry insiders say is dogged by weak installation capacity and manufacturing problems, chiefly high raw material prices coupled with cheap imports.
The government is targeting the installation of 1 million new solar water heaters by 2014 in what has become a priority industrial sector for a country with dire energy shortages and chronic unemployment.
Zuma is due to launch the programme's first mass-based project, a 7 000-unit installation at Winterveldt in Tshwane, which forms part of the 200 000 solar water heaters that the Department of Energy says should be installed by the end of this fiscal year.
Terry Billson, the technical director of energy efficiency specialist Genergy, which installed 2 500 low-cost solar water heaters in Khuyasa, Cape Town, said 1 million units was an "ambitious" target and would involve a massive deployment.
"There are some challenges, and the biggest is installation capacity," Billson said, indicating that installing solar water heaters was more complicated than the connection of a conventional electric geyser.
"There is not sufficient capacity on the scale that the minister of (energy) is talking about. We need a major investment in training initiatives," Billson said. "It's a challenge, but it's also an opportunity to create employment."
Dylan Tudor-Jones, the owner of Solar Heat Exchangers and chairman of the solar heating division of the Sustainable Energy Society Southern Africa, said three service providers were currently involved in training. But courses for training plumbers were "very expensive to run" and would require subsidisation because of low returns.
Assuming one team was to finalise three installations a working day, it would take about 280 teams five years to reach the government's 1 million unit target.
Billson warned that raw material costs locally, particularly for stainless steel, would have implications for domestic production of solar water heaters, a key tenet of the government's industrial policy action plan. Meanwhile, China was exporting competitively priced, low-pressure systems that could be installed in South Africa for just under R4 000.
The government had indicated previously that it would rely on imports of solar water heaters this year but would shift buying as local manufacturing capacity kicked in.
Richard Worthington, the climate change programme manager at WWF South Africa, said the environmental group hoped local manufacturing would ramp up by next year "but at this stage, given the lack of clarity and implementation in general on solar water heaters, we'd emphasise the urgency of scaling up. If we continue with substantial imports into next year, it's probably justified because of lower electricity usage."
The installation of 1 million solar water heaters is expected to save approximately 650MW of electricity demand. The minimum potential South African market is estimated at 5 million households.
Asked whether 1 million solar water heaters was an ambitious target, Worthington said: "Given the lack of implementation to date, it becomes more ambitious by the month... 1 million (units) for 2014 isn't too bad, provided there's another 1 million in the following two years."
WWF is campaigning for the Kusile coal-fired power station to be put on hold, believing solar water heating should be rolled out on a scale to significantly lessen the need for the next large power station.
The focus of the government's solar water heating initiative up to now has been on Eskom's subsidies for solar water heaters pitched at upper-income households that can afford the capital cost of their solar geysers. The Eskom subsidies effectively doubled in January.
By the end of March, Eskom had received 4 206 reimbursement claims, a third of which were from Gauteng, spokesman Andrew Etzinger said.
The government is targeting the installation of 1 million new solar water heaters by 2014 in what has become a priority industrial sector for a country with dire energy shortages and chronic unemployment.
Zuma is due to launch the programme's first mass-based project, a 7 000-unit installation at Winterveldt in Tshwane, which forms part of the 200 000 solar water heaters that the Department of Energy says should be installed by the end of this fiscal year.
Terry Billson, the technical director of energy efficiency specialist Genergy, which installed 2 500 low-cost solar water heaters in Khuyasa, Cape Town, said 1 million units was an "ambitious" target and would involve a massive deployment.
"There are some challenges, and the biggest is installation capacity," Billson said, indicating that installing solar water heaters was more complicated than the connection of a conventional electric geyser.
"There is not sufficient capacity on the scale that the minister of (energy) is talking about. We need a major investment in training initiatives," Billson said. "It's a challenge, but it's also an opportunity to create employment."
Dylan Tudor-Jones, the owner of Solar Heat Exchangers and chairman of the solar heating division of the Sustainable Energy Society Southern Africa, said three service providers were currently involved in training. But courses for training plumbers were "very expensive to run" and would require subsidisation because of low returns.
Assuming one team was to finalise three installations a working day, it would take about 280 teams five years to reach the government's 1 million unit target.
Billson warned that raw material costs locally, particularly for stainless steel, would have implications for domestic production of solar water heaters, a key tenet of the government's industrial policy action plan. Meanwhile, China was exporting competitively priced, low-pressure systems that could be installed in South Africa for just under R4 000.
The government had indicated previously that it would rely on imports of solar water heaters this year but would shift buying as local manufacturing capacity kicked in.
Richard Worthington, the climate change programme manager at WWF South Africa, said the environmental group hoped local manufacturing would ramp up by next year "but at this stage, given the lack of clarity and implementation in general on solar water heaters, we'd emphasise the urgency of scaling up. If we continue with substantial imports into next year, it's probably justified because of lower electricity usage."
The installation of 1 million solar water heaters is expected to save approximately 650MW of electricity demand. The minimum potential South African market is estimated at 5 million households.
Asked whether 1 million solar water heaters was an ambitious target, Worthington said: "Given the lack of implementation to date, it becomes more ambitious by the month... 1 million (units) for 2014 isn't too bad, provided there's another 1 million in the following two years."
WWF is campaigning for the Kusile coal-fired power station to be put on hold, believing solar water heating should be rolled out on a scale to significantly lessen the need for the next large power station.
The focus of the government's solar water heating initiative up to now has been on Eskom's subsidies for solar water heaters pitched at upper-income households that can afford the capital cost of their solar geysers. The Eskom subsidies effectively doubled in January.
By the end of March, Eskom had received 4 206 reimbursement claims, a third of which were from Gauteng, spokesman Andrew Etzinger said.
- Business Report
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