- Establishment of Measurement and Verification of Local Content
- About 87 000 systems have been procured by the Department under the National Solar Water Heater Programme.
- 19 participating municipalities have benefitted from the program in the 2018/19 financial year.
In message delivered at the Northern Cape Renewable Energy Conference held in De Aar this week, the Department of Energy assured the public that they have addressed past weaknesses in the implementation of the Solar Water Heater Implementation Model.
The model was revised in 2015 based on the lessons learned and also in consideration from which the capacity of local manufacturers had to be tested as per the designation notes. The Department added that the establishment of Measurement and Verification of Local Content had to be done among others. ‘We can confirm that there is local manufacturing capacity in this specific area and we can look forward to seamless infrastructure roll out’.
About 87 000 systems have been procured by the Department for implementation under the social component of the National Solar Water Heater Programme. The Department plans to install all procured 87 000 SWH units in nineteen (19) participating municipalities during the 2018/19 Financial year. Of the nineteen municipalities, two (2) are from the Northern Cape Province and these are – Sol Plaatjie Local Municipality (6000 allocated solar geysers) and Emthanjeni Local Municipality (4000 allocated solar geysers) respectively and the entire quantity is locally manufactured and verified by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS).
Going forward, the Department has committed to work very closely with participating municipalities through the signing of Framework Agreements during the implementation of this programme. This will include activities that need to be done prior to installation such as social facilitation and technical feasibility assessments. This will make sure that some of the technical challenges experienced before at Sol Plaatjie Municipality that led to dysfunctional geysers are averted.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
