Solar Gets an Energy Boost in South Africa

Solar energy is in the air right now, and in more ways than one. South Africa’s biggest solar farm, one of the world’s largest, has been on line for almost a year. Google is eyeing out South Africa more and more for its new foray into solar energy. And a world-leading team from Stellenbosch will, on 17 October, be presenting its much heralded new project Helio100 that could help drastically cut the cost of solar energy.

Two of the biggest problems facing solar power are the size and cost of panels. Helio100 is trying to tackle both of them.

The heliostat technology is located at Mariendahl, an experimental farm of Stellenbosch University, where the Helio100 pilot facility will be officially opened at the end of September. The technology is designed for concentrated solar plants as small as 100kW, enough power to provide electricity for about 30 South African households.

Leading the research is the Solar Thermal Energy Research Group, the first university research group in the country to focus on solar thermal energy research. Both Eskom and Sasol are partners in the project.

The Helio100 project is explained in a short video:

The massive 96 megawatt Jasper solar farm near Kimberley in the Northern Cape, meanwhile, went online in November 2014, several months after the 75 MW Lesedi plant right next-door.

U.S. co-developer SolarReserve said at the time that Jasper would provide electricity to 80,000 homes (although that figure depends on numerous factors, and news reports put it as low as 30,000). One of the backers for the $260 million project is search engine giant Google, making its first investment in renewable energy in Africa.

Next to come online, but only in 2018, will be the 100 MW Redstone plant, also near Jasper and Letsedi.

In 2012, the South African government gave the green light to an initial $5.4 billion worth of clean energy projects that would allow it to procure 1,400 MW of electricity and help reduce reliance on coal-fired plants, Reuters reported at the time. It said the country required 41,000 MW for its electricity needs, most of which is generated by coal.

Watch a January 2015 TV broadcast on US investment in solar South Africa:

Google’s involvement in solar seems to be tentative for the moment. It made the Jasper investment in 2013. More recently the company announced Project Sunroof,  a project seeking to allay some of the concerns of consumers about how much solar energy is going to cost them if they install panels in their homes, and how much energy they are going to get. At present, the project is only available in several U.S. cities.