South Africa imported solar PV panels worth nearly R2.2 billion in the first five months of this year alone, a Reuters analysis of customs data has found.
That amounts to over 500 megawatts of peak generating capacity, analysts say. Once installed, the panels will increase the 2.1 gigawatts of estimated existing small-scale solar generating capacity by some 24%, surpassing what the government has managed to procure in a decade of its utility-scale solar strategy,“It’s completely unrecognised by the government as to how big an industry it’s become,” said Frank Spencer, spokesman for the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association.
In July, president Cyril Ramaphosa announced an ‘energy action plan’ to tackle the country’s power crisis. In Johannesburg alone, it is estimated that there are more than 20,000 unregistered solar systems, most of them residential, and despite a legal requirement to have them registered. A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. The two main components are PV panels and a grid-tied PV inverter .
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