Sustainable Security: How Community Solar Panels Can Improve Energy Security in South Africa

In this post, we take a brief trip out of Athens to explore the issue of loadshedding and a sustainable policy solution in South Africa with Sara Anis Ali, a fourth-year Political Science and International Affairs major. Loadshedding refers to the state-sanctioned blackouts that occur to prevent an overload of the South African power grid. Such blackouts disproportionately affect the country’s Black residents.  

Executive Summary: 

For almost two decades South Africa has faced the impacts of loadshedding. Because of the nation’s aging infrastructures and partial grid failure, many residents in South Africa, primarily Black South Africans residing in townships, face hours on end without access to electricity. To address this issue, this proposal recommends implementing community solar panels in townships, utilizing the country’s access to solar energy. Solar microgrids can act as a cost-effective, scalable and sustainable solution that reduces the cost of energy production while meeting the more immediate needs of residents. While challenges with receiving administrative approval may exist, implementing community solar panels will provide reliable energy, allowing for greater prosperity within these regions. 

Problem Statement and Background: 

Since 2007, South Africa has experienced a phenomenon known as loadshedding. Loadshedding refers to a series of intentional electric blackouts that occur across the country  to prevent overloading on the powergrid and remains a constant burden on South Africans. In 2019, the country faced blackouts for over 530 hours within the calendar year, and the implications of such extended periods of blackouts are significant. Because loadshedding can occur at any point, local businesses and households must navigate their lives around scheduled blackouts, either relying on generators or enduring hours without air conditioning, wifi, and light. The impacts of continued loadshedding has cost South Africa’s economy, with businesses totaling a 19 billion dollar loss over the last ten years. 

Loadshedding also tends to disproportionately impact Black South Africans, who under the Group Areas Act of 1950, were forced off their lands and relegated to undesirable, confined areas known as townships. Because Black South Africans were forced into these informal settlements with a lack of planned infrastructure, they face the brunt of the loadshedding costs. 

The primary cause of load shedding is South Africa’s aging infrastructure and maintenance mismanagement. Much of South Africa’s gridlines were established in the 1960s. Because electricity was coal generated, electricity would flow from the coal-rich regions of Mpumalanga in the Eastern Cape of South Africa to the Western Cape. While this structure allowed South Africa to enjoy low energy costs in the 1960s, as the population in the country grew and infrastructure aged, South Africa’s major electricity supplier, Eskom, found itself unable to meet the needs of its citizens. 

While South Africa’s national government is working towards a solution for the long-run, it will take South Africa decades to either repair its generation plants or build new ones that rely on cleaner sources of energy. Because of this, in the short-run, South Africa needs a solution to meet its energy consumption needs. 

Policy Idea & Analysis: 

To alleviate some of the pressures of loadshedding, I propose implementing community solar panels or solar microgrids in the areas facing the greatest extent of loadingshedding: townships. Community solar panels are an effective source of energy in South Africa because the nation receives between 4.5 and 6.5 kilowatt hours per square meter, which is enough to support both small and larger scale solar projects in the nation. Unlike wind power, which also serves as a feasible renewable energy resource, solar panels are ideal for townships because they can be established on any surface and do not require large sections of land. Establishing a single microgrid system can generate enough energy to power at least several hundreds of homes and connect to the existing distribution lines in communities.   

Community solar panels have proven to be more economically feasible for communities to implement, with lowering capital investments and reduced energy transmission costs, as energy doesn’t have to travel as far from source sites to reach consumers. Additionally, as community solar panel projects expand, the cost of such installations will also decrease. South Africa already has key producers within the solar panel and battery industry, thus with greater demand, such industries can further scale allowing for greater production. In relation to equity, implementing such an initiative not only allows for sustainable and reliable energy generation, but also allows South Africa to rectify decades of inequities from apartheid policies impacting service delivery and cost of electricity for Black South Africans. 

Some concerns that this plan raises relate to theft and vandalism. Because of the inability of the police forces to protect infrastructure investments, many community members may have to patrol the sites and to ensure that there is no damage to such installations. Such acts do require time, as continuous protection does generate a higher scale cost. However, by including a nominal cost within township resident’s utility bills, the provinces could pay guards to maintain oversight and protection over such installations. 

Recommendations/Implementation Plan:

To implement such an initiative, first there must be community buy-in. Because of decades-long issues of service delivery and high unemployment rates, many residents of townships both distrust new initiatives that promise to provide reliable services and also cannot afford high electricity costs. To address such issues, project planners would have to showcase existing examples, such as those in Alexandria or KwaZakhele Township, where such initiatives have led to stable power generation and reduced electricity costs for residents. 

After creating community buy-in, such a project would have to work alongside municipal and provincial authorities to gain approval. Existing regulatory barriers remain as project planners would need municipal approval for the usage of space and creation of solar power structures. To receive such approval, developers and at least 33% of local community members or their proxies must meet with municipal officials and convey that they favor such an installation. While there won’t be issues with licensing, as South Africa has removed such requirements for the creation of energy generation projects, each township would have to determine which authority owns the existing powerlines that will be connected to the microgrids. After communicating with such entities, developers would be able to determine whether they must create additional electric lines to households or utilize the same lines provided by the original energy supplier. 

Once project planners navigate all of the existing administrative issues, construction can begin. To offset the initial development costs of such projects, the project planners would either need to secure provincial or municipal grants or seek loan approvals from South African banks or international organizations like the World Bank which has created a Scaling Solar initiative. Prior to project completion, project planners will need to determine a billing system to charge residents for its electricity provision, allowing for the community project to pay off its debts. To ensure continued maintenance and longevity of such projects, project developers will need to train people to maintain the power grids and repair any damages that may occur to the structure or its power lines.

Ultimately, while the project may face some administrative and initial funding barriers, once implemented such a project will provide a continuous source of affordable, reliable energy for South Africa’s townships, allowing for greater economic opportunity and stability within the country.

Sources

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