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By The Knysna Bulldog
South Africa’s biggest problem is the electricity shortage. It is undermining our economy and our leaders are still thinking coal at a time when solar, wind and batteries can produce a much cheaper and more reliable supply.
And anybody who looks to nuclear doesn’t understand the problem. It takes many years to build a nuclear power station and we need the electricity now. Solar projects take a matter of months, even week for small ones.
If our leaders had any imagination and the ability to do a bit of lateral thinking we would already be building floating islands of solar panels in the middle of all our big dams. Here’s why.
Firstly, it is the cheapest way to generate electricity. The cost of building a new coal-fired power station is about $ 2 200 per kW. The cost of solar power is $800 per kW. So solar is nearly three times cheaper. The figures come from a South African consulting engineer who is working on a floating solar project in Sierra Leone. He says the installed floating solar will cost $800 per kW and that is a real-world-now figure.
But the low cost is just the first advantage. The surface cost for floating solar is free as no land has to be purchased or hired. The big dams are already owned by the Government, municipalities and water boards.
Secondly, the performance of solar panels falls off when they get too hot so keeping them cooler on the water will make them more efficient.
The big plus is that floating solar will reduce the amount of water lost to evaporation and these losses are massive during the summer months. So we save more water for food production.
And it gets even better. The big dams on the Orange River also produce hydro electricity so they are already connected to the grid so time and money are saved. It will be hard to steal solar panels floating in the middle of a big dam so security costs will be low.
There will be no shade or dust problems and it will be easy to keep the panels clean by hosing them down with dam water which drains back into the dam. And, finally, the floating islands will reduce the amount of sunlight penetrating the water so algal growth will slow down and water quality will improve.
If you think money would be a problem think again. There are many companies that would compete and pay for the right to build the solar islands and then sell the electricity they produce. The capital cost for government and municipalities would be Zero, Zilch, Nada.
It’s a win-win-win-win-win situation so why, in Heaven’s name, are we not doing it? Somebody please copy this and send it to Cyril and anyone else who might have some influence.