The University of Pretoria is extending its Onderstepoort campus and this extension also includes a 672 m² solar thermal system. The system provides warm water to the new energy-efficient flats accommodating a total of 550 students. Onderstepoort - or OP, as it is commonly known - is...
After 42 years in the business, South African solar thermal pioneer Solardome SA had to shut down its manufacturing operations at the end of last year. The name Solardome - formerly Mikado - stands for more than four decades of collector manufacturing in South Africa (see...
In early August, South Africa's national utility, Eskom, convened a workshop for solar water heating manufacturers, suppliers and installers. The primary objective of the workshop was to advise the industry on what to do about the remaining budget for the solar water heating rebate...
There has been no decision yet regarding the future of the national residential incentive programme by South African utility Eskom: As of 12 July 2011, the utility counted a backlog of all in all 53,208 applications. This is more than half of the number of all applications approved since the...
The number of monthly installed and subsidised solar thermal installations in South African households increased significantly towards the end of 2010. According to Eskom, energy utility and administrator of the national residential subsidy programme, 4,914 claims were paid in December. This...
In the middle of June, during the World Cup in South Africa, the significant drop in temperature around Johannesburg did not only cause some football players to catch a cold in the meantime, but one of these frosty winter nights also destroyed several hundred solar systems in the region....
Solar thermal installation in Soweto: Eskom's Renewable Energy Portfolio Manager, Cedric Worthmann, said that, “Our aim is to encourage as many South Africans as possible to move away from using electric geysers and replace them with solar heated systems instead”....
Hosting the next ISES Congress: The 30th ISES Solar World Congress will be held in Kassel, Germany, from 28 August to 2 September 2011. This year´s resolution recommends that governments worldwide should establish a law to increase the use of renewable energies in the heating and cooling...
When it comes to installing solar thermal systems, skilled workers are still rare in South Africa – a fact that the training centre WaterSmith tries to change. The training facility is offering its first solar water heater courses.
Photo: Zingaro
Dylan Tudor-Jones was a founding member of the Solar Water Heating Division of the Sustainable Energy Society of Southern Africa (SESSA). Solarthermalworld.org spoke with him at the International Solar Energy Society Solar World Congress 2009 in Johannesburg in October.
...
