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

[Social Media]

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.

[KhunLA]

 

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.

[BritManToo]

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.

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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.