Solar energy in South Africa by Virgile

Solar energy in Africa

Africa is considered as the “Sun continent” because in this continent they are loot of potential solar energy thanks to many hours of bright sunshine during the course of the year. But the solar energy is not implant in the Africa.

But the costs of solar installation are lower and this can promote this type of installation in Africa. And industries in this sector forecasts that the continent’s photovoltaic panel market may explode. Future installation of solar energy are locating in the equatorial and sub equatorial climate zones this area is close to the equator. Therefore certain countries are disadvantaged like the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, Uganda … because this countries are in the wet-humid zone. Many nation which are sunny like loot of time can Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Niger, Sudan can develop their solar energy installation thanks to the immense surface of their territory and at reduced prices.

In this field South Africa is a leader in Africa with 1329 MW installed in 2016. The solar energy growing rapidly with many centrals which produce 75 MV peer days (as on the image on the left) and the two largest in the country can produce 100 MW. Moreover South Africa has announced a plan to install batteries for reduce diesel usage by half.