South Africa: Three cities put the sunny side up

There’s a new champion of green power in South Africa: three of the country’s largest municipalities are in the process of ordering 600 000 solar water heaters.

The country has a tight electricity supply. Indications are that this will remain tight until at least 2013 when new capacity becomes available.

Municipalities have in the meantime been instructed by the authorities to cut back their electricity consumption by 10%. The easiest and cheapest way they have of doing this is through the large-scale introduction of solar water heating.

Jo’burg’s City Power has issued a tender for 300 000 water heaters. There were 134 purchasers of the tender documents, of whom 88 have submitted tenders. Both local and international companies participated in the tender. The tender has closed and City Power will now assess the submissions later this month.

The East Rand municipality Ekurhuleni, meanwhile, is understood to be in the process of soliciting tenders for 200 000 solar water heaters while the Nelson Mandela metro in the Eastern Cape intends purchasing 100 000 units in conjunction with the Central Energy Fund.

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