South Africa to have major advantage in the renewable energy space

Solar and wind-generated electricity remains a huge source of growth in South Africa thanks to our natural resources. Expert speakers on a panel discussion at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town commented on the incredible potential in this sector:

Engineer and researcher Tobias Bischof-Niemz, a former chief engineer at Eskom, said on Tuesday that South Africa had superb wind and solar resources, and a big enough supply of land to construct these power supplies at scale.

“These three things give South Africa a huge competitive advantage, which can never be taken away.”

Because of this, electricity from solar and wind would always be about 30% lower in South Africa than it would be in other parts of the world, which would make the country an attractive destination for companies that were energy-intensive.

There is often a misperception that solar is ‘unreliable’ but as pointed out by Bischof-Neimz, it is in fact variable:

Bischof-Niemz said it was incorrect to say that solar and wind power was “intermittent”, which implied that there would be unforeseen stops in generation. This was not the case.

“Wind and solar power is not intermittent. It is variable, it changes over time, and these changes are predictable.”

These variables in weather patterns have been factored into your asset if you are buying a solar panel with Fedgroup’s Impact Farming. Over 20 years of weather data were analysed to give the Internal Rate of Return as 10% per annum, with the rand amount earned per month varying depending on the season.

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To read the full article on Fin24.com click here.