Tag Archives: South Africa
Zille unveils four-year plan for green Cape
The provincial government plans to have 15 percent of all electricity used in the Western Cape generated from renewable energy sources – like wind, wave and solar – by 2014. It also aims to reduce electricity use in selected schools … Continue reading
Carte Blanche compare heat pumps and solar geysers
Many of you would have seen Carte Blanche’s recent insert on heat pumps and solar water heaters. In it they compare the payback period of the two options, concluding that you’re better off buying a heat pump if you want … Continue reading
Installing an evacuated tube solar geyser – pictures
Solar Science is busy with an installation in Bishopscourt, Cape Town. We are installing a Green Power evacuated tube solar collector. It’s a 10 tube system for a 150 litre geyser. This wouldn’t normally be adequate for a house of … Continue reading
Are heat pumps a good alternative to solar geysers?
At Solar Science, we’ve recently been looking at heat pumps as a possible alternative way to heat the water in your hot water cylinder, particularly for clients where the installation of solar panels is not feasible, not permitted or is … Continue reading
US University Wins Solar Decathlon for Best Solar Powered House
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech) have been crowned winners of the Solar Decathlon Europe. The Solar Decathlon is an international competition and has been running biennially since 2002. This year’s Decathlon took place in Madrid, Spain. The … Continue reading
Can one feed electricity back into the grid in SA?
One of the ways of making decentralized renewable energy generation viable is to allow homeowners and small business owners to feed the electricity they generate back into the Eskom grid. Ideally, people feeding electricity back into the grid would be … Continue reading
Chairman of Eskom on future of energy creation in SA
The Chairman of Eskom, Mpho Makwana, recently spoke to Alec Hogg of Moneyweb. You can read the full transcript of the interview here. Mr Makwana had some interesting things to say about the future of electricity generation in South Africa. … Continue reading
Free ways to save electricity in South Africa – part 1
With Cape Town’s electricity tariffs just having gone up, I thought I’d give you a few free ways to save on electricity. I’ll keep each blog post short and to the point, so check back for the next electricity saving … Continue reading
SA Energy Regulator Sets Out Energy Savings Measures in Paper
THE National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) has published a consultation paper with measures to encourage rapid and large-scale implementation of energy savings, in line with government policy on energy efficiency. This is one of the short-term measures to address … Continue reading
Video: Flat Panel Solar Collector
As discussed in an earlier post, a solar water heating system has two main components – the geyser (or hot water cylinder) and the collector. The collector is the panel (or set of evacuated tubes) that sits on your roof … Continue reading
