The South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA) is optimistic that the decision to increase the licence-exemption threshold for distributed-generation facilities from 1 MW to 100 MW will support a rapid increase in the deployment of larger-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, with some 500 MW of such capacity having been installed last year even ahead of the proposed reform. Spokesperson Maloba Tshehla estimates that about 20% of the new distributed-generation capacity installed last year arose from residential systems, with the commercial and industrial segment having contributed the bulk of the new rooftop capacity introduced.
