SolarBot device mitigates growing issue of unoptimised solar systems

Home energy management company Plentify says its partnership with solar and electrical solutions installer Herholdts to distribute its SolarBot devices in South Africa, has helped customers to gain the maximum efficiency and cost savings from their solar systems.

With solar installation interest having stagnated since loadshedding was suspended in April, Plentify is driving the adoption of its SolarBot technology on the back of significant cost-savings that users can realise from fully using solar capacity and optimally discharging batteries.

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The biggest obstacle to renewable energy in Africa? Red tape, AOW delegates hear

The key problems in implementing renewable energy in Africa (including South Africa) are regulatory, participants in a panel discussion at Africa Oil Week (AOW) reported, on Wednesday. AOW is being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The issues were not so much the amount of regulatory compliance needed but, what was often much more serious, the dilatoriness of government departments in processing applications and issuing authorisations. South African black-owned renewable (mainly wind) energy company Seriti Green CEO Peter Venn reported that it could take anything from six to 16 years in South Africa from the acquisition of a site to the start of construction of a wind farm. The company currently had five projects spread across four South African provinces (plus projects in East Africa), worth billions of rands.
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Cost-competitiveness to underpin surge in global renewables roll-out to 2030 – IEA

Led by solar PV, renewables are poised to transform electricity systems across the globe this decade, with the world on course to add more than 5 500 GW by 2030, the International Energy Agency’s (IEA’s) ‘Renewables 2024’ report states. Such additions would increase global renewable electricity generation to over 17 000 TWh, which is roughly equal to the current combined electricity demand of China, the European Union, India and the US.
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France nears disbursement of second climate loan to South Africa

France is nearing the disbursement of a second loan to South Africa’s Treasury under the Just Energy Transition Partnership programme. “We are in the final stages of preparing a second loan,” adding to the €300 million ($329 million) it distributed about 18 months ago, David Martinon, France’s ambassador to South Africa, said in a speech in the town of eMalahleni, east of Johannesburg, on Wednesday.
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