How Much Of South Africa’s Electricity Comes From Solar Energy?

1 min read

The rollout of clean and renewable energy in South Africa has been rather slow with government dragging their feet with the implementation of their plans. Despite this, there is a gradual rise in renewable energy which is set to increase in pace, due in-part to the failures of national state power supplier Eskom. 

One of the most widely used types of renewable energy is solar power, which comes from photovoltaic cells that harness energy from the sun. Solar power in South Africa is usually employed by individual households, complexes, factories and large standalone retail outlets as opposed to municipalities. This means that not a large portion of our electricity supply comes from solar energy. In 2016 Stats SA conducted a large survey which found that 0,9% of our country’s energy supply can be attributed to solar power. According to a research study done in the same year by the South African Department of Energy, only 11% of our energy supply comes from renewable energy and waste, and 69% from coal. Although these figures are quite a way apart from one another, they still paint the grim picture for the current use of solar energy and renewable energy in general. 

The future of solar energy in South Africa does not seem as dingy, though. Between 2013 and 2016, solar energy supply has gone from 0 GWh to 2 151 GWh, marking a 100% increase. In 2021, Moneyweb also reported that the private sector would invest another R50bn in renewables that year, which was to be accompanied by government’s plan to procure 2 600 MW of renewable energy. 

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