January 26th 2011
CAPE TOWN ? The government has a long way to go to achieve its target of 1-million installed solar water heating systems by 2014 but it believes that a mix of carrots and sticks will add impetus to the roll-out programme over the next few years. The programme is a critical part of its initiative to reduce consumer electricity demand until Eskom?s new power plants come on stream. The government has targeted the installation of between 5-million and 6-million units by 2019. By the end of March this year the threshold of 55000 units would have been exceeded, Department of Energy deputy director-general of electricity, nuclear and clean energy Ompie Aphane told the National Council of Provinces? select committee on economic development during an update briefing yesterday. From April to December last year, 26768 units were installed under the Eskom rebate scheme, bringing the cumulative total to 30974 since the inception of the programme in November 2008. This excluded installations outside of the scheme and systems that had been installed but where the rebate had not yet been claimed. Mr Aphane said a number of interventions were pending to accelerate the programme. Last month Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies agreed to introduce a tax rebate for energy savings with the proviso by Mr Gordhan that they would have to be verifiable. Provision for the incentive was included in the regulations issued under the Energy Act. New building regulations due to be promulgated shortly would make energy efficiency compulsory, while the hike in electricity tariffs over the next few years would also intensify demand for solar water heating, Mr Aphane said. He was confident "the target of 1-million systems by 2014 could be achieved especially when the electricity tariff doubles in 2013" as a result of the three-year multiyear electricity price determination which laid down tariff increases of an average of 25% annually. The raised tariff would increase the savings to be achieved by having solar water geysers and heighten demand for them. Funding the R10bn solar programme would be a challenge, with the government having allocated only R300m so far. Source: Business Day, LINDA ENSOR Published: 2011/01/26 07:08:11 AM
|
