Who would have thought by going green it would create so much hatred.
Tonight I was catching up on the latest Solar news in South Africa as things tend to change weekly. You need to legally know where you stand with a crooked government trying to fleece your every move. Going green is not in the governments best interest.
Last week there was a major development for renewable energy when the Johannesburg High Court ruled in favor of Sibanye-Stillwater a gold mine who was being blocked by Eskom (SOE) because they wanted to supply their own energy via solar. The gold mine has been blocked for over a year as Eskom were not happy saying this solar installation was unsafe.
The gold mine was asking for permission or a "wayleave" that would allow them to build their own power lines. What the court found out it was not the safety that Eskom was fighting, but more to do with transferring the energy to Eskom directly using the power lines already in place which would cost the gold mine an extra 30% for the free electricity they generated. Not exactly free as they would be paying for the 50 megawatt solar installation and the money saved on energy costs would justify the spend, but would not be economically viable if they had to pay the 30%.
Eskom is all about protecting their revenue and is not interested in renewable energy as they see this as their biggest threat to controlling the grid and future revenue. The rest of the world is thinking green and here we are in sunny South Africa fighting government run companies who want to block every green initiative because it does not make them money.
The court ruling will open the flood gates as not only did the gold mine want reliable energy supply but also to help boost their carbon credits. Other companies will be thinking along similar lines as this is where the future is heading. I find it baffling to think that Cyril Ramaphosa the current President of SA stated at COPA 26 that by 2030 40% of energy in SA would be renewable. I guess they were not being serious and were looking for hand outs which is what they are known for and the gullible normally give it to them. I say current President as his term comes to an end in 2027 so stating 2030 does not apply to him.
At the beginning of this month Eskom extended the deadline for home owners to register their solar installations and offered R10 000 towards the costs. R10 000 is around $600 and you wonder how much the registering a system will cost plus it includes a smart meter installed. Funny that considering in January they moved solar installations away from smart meters or are in the process of doing so as this way they can charge more per kwh used and charge for inflated administration fees on monthly billing.
The deadline is now the end of March for the roughly 40 000 solar installations in the country who are seen as the enemy. I read somewhere roughly 10% have registered which leaves myself as part of the 90% standing their ground. If you have not registered by now I guess you will not be and even with the threats this is worth fighting for.
We have been advised by OUTA (Organization Undoing Tax Abuse) that as long as our solar installations are less than 100 kwh that do not feed electricity back into the grid and have a COC (certificate of compliance) from a registered electrician then no laws have been broken. Personally there is no worry from my side as what can they do? This is just illegal threats trying to scare solar owners into registering and this will not work. If they cut my power from the grid this would be illegal and would not force me to register. Actually quite the opposite as maybe by the time they come knocking the system would be 90% off the grid anyway. The registration fees would pay for the extra 10% required and would fast track another property leaving the grid.