A state of disaster has been declared in South Africa as the country grapples with a severe electricity crisis.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the emergency measure, which will take immediate effect, during a state of the nation address on Thursday.

 

"Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures. The energy crisis is an existential threat to our economy and social fabric," said Mr Ramaphosa.

 

Mind boggling .... ????

 

"The annual 24-hour global solar radiation average is about 220 W/m2 for South Africa, compared with about 150 W/m2 for parts of the USA, and about 100 W/m2 for Europe and the United Kingdom. This makes South Africa's local resource one of the highest in the world."

https://www.energy.gov.za/files/esources/renewables/r_solar.html#:~:text=The annual 24-hour global,the highest in the world.

 

With the numbers above, you'd think they would have invested in solar, instead of depending on coal. 

Som naa na

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1237610/south-africa-distribution-of-electricity-production-by-source/#:~:text=Coal is by far the,percent of total electricity generation.

5 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

With the numbers above, you'd think they would have invested in solar, instead of depending on coal. 

I don't think they invested in anything ........ which is the problem.

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I don't think they invested in anything ........ which is the problem.

They did invest in 2 new coal powered plants but they're having lots of problems.

South Africa's geographical situation is apparently ideal for solar and  wind.

A solar plant takes a lot less time to construct than an equivalent coal powered plant and is a lot cheaper, as well.