Solar power generation could help to bring stability in South Africa

Glenneis Kriel reports on the importance of solar power generation in the country in light of load-shedding, among other challenges.

- Glenneis Kriel

The solar industry would have to match capacity building of the past 20 years every two years from now on to meet the COP27 target of tripling renewable energy generation capacity by 2030, Gregor Küpper, managing director of Solarworld, said during a recent media briefing in Cape Town.

Küpper said that total global new solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity amounted to 240GW in 2022 and increased by almost 100% to 440GW in 2023. At the end of last year, total global installed solar PV capacity amounted to 1,2TW.

He said the cost of solar power systems had fallen considerably in recent years, allowing solar power plants connected directly to the grid, without battery storage, to pay itself off in as little as two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half years.

In terms of generation costs, solar generation costs have come down to below R2 per kilowatt hour (kWh), which is roughly on par with Eskom's Ruraflex tariff, and much lower than the R7/kWh to R8/kWh it costs to generate power with diesel generators.