{"id":91329,"date":"2026-06-11T14:44:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T14:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/?p=91329"},"modified":"2026-06-12T12:01:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T12:01:19","slug":"outlier-renew-18-panel-beating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/2026\/06\/11\/outlier-renew-18-panel-beating\/","title":{"rendered":"Outlier Renew #18:\u00a0Panel beating"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This week\u2019s newsletter focuses on solar panels for a few reasons. Firstly, because the capacity of rooftop solar in South Africa has now passed 8GW, according to Eskom\u2019s latest weekly status report. Those are the panels installed on commercial and industrial buildings as well as on households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We can\u2019t find data on the megawatts of solar that have been installed on people\u2019s homes, but StatsSA\u2019s annual General Household Survey recently published 2025 data on the number of households with solar panels. That number has increased by 86% in the space of three years. 675,000 households in South Africa had solar panels in 2025, according to the survey. Half (52%) of those households are in Gauteng, and another 16% are in the Western Cape, so together those two provinces have two-thirds (68%) of the households with solar panels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But the bulk of the 8GW of rooftop solar that Eskom reports is not sitting on the roofs of people\u2019s houses; it\u2019s on the shopping malls, warehouses and other commercial and industrial properties that invested in solar because of loadshedding and have continued to do so because of the high cost of Eskom\u2019s electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This brings me to the second reason I\u2019m focusing on solar panels this week. Ember\u2019s data shows that South Africa has imported 17.3GW of panels from China since 2017. This is by far the most of any African country. For context, the chart below shows South Africa\u2019s imports compared with the other top importers on the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Where are all those imported panels being used? The private solar PV generation projects registered with Nersa and the government\u2019s renewable energy and risk mitigation independent power producer programmes (REIPPPP and RMIPPPP) can give an indication of where some of those 17GW of panels have gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 13.7GW of solar PV projects have been registered with Nersa since 2018. These are the projects that have permission to link to the national grid or a municipal distribution network, so solar installations that are for on-site use only (like the ones on your neighbour\u2019s roof) are unlikely to be on that list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some of the Nersa-registered projects are big utility-scale facilities whose electrons will be wheeled though the national grid to private users like mines or data centres. Others are at farms or shopping malls. There\u2019s a wide range of developers. Not all of the projects on the register are operational and many of them may not be under construction yet. Nersa doesn\u2019t share that information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there are the big utility-scale projects that are part of REIPPPP and RMIPPPP. There is 8.1GW of solar PV under those programmes, according to our calculations. But only 2.8MW of them are built and operational. Most of the projects are working towards financial close and not yet under construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings me back to the rooftop solar stats. Nersa registered private power projects and rooftop solar together total 22GW. And there is more rooftop solar PV installed now (ie, 8.3GW) than there is contracted by the government\u2019s independent power producers programmes and operational \u2013 2.8GW. So the surge in Chinese solar panel imports is being driven by private sector projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RENEWABLE PIN-UP<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A \u201ccrane-less\u201d system for installing wind turbines (Photo: Nabrawind)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A wind turbine in Namibia has become the first in the world to be commercially installed without a crane. The turbine is the first of seven at the InnoVent Diaz Wind Farm near L\u00fcderitz that will be installed using Skylift, a system developed by Spanish engineering firm Nabrawind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standard cranes can only install turbine blades at wind speeds between 6 and 8 m\/s. Skylift can operate at 15 m\/s, with bursts up to 20 m\/s. The system also removes the need to transport heavy cranes to remote sites with limited road access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The turbine essentially builds itself<\/a> upward from the ground,” InnoVent executive director for Southern Africa Tom Torne\u00a0told The Namibian<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Namibia currently imports 60\u201370% of its electricity, mainly from South Africa. The Diaz Wind Farm is expected to produce 230GWh a year, covering roughly 6% of the country’s electricity demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vital statistics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Location<\/strong>: InnoVent Diaz Wind Farm, near L\u00fcderitz, Namibia
Number of turbines<\/strong>: 11, seven of which are Goldwind GW165\/6000 wind turbines. The remaining four turbines, which have already been installed, are XMEC-Darwind XE93-2000 wind turbines.
Total capacity<\/strong>: 44MW
Expected generation<\/strong>: 230GWh a year, 6% of Namibia’s electricity demand
Emission prevention<\/strong>: 200,000 tons of CO2<\/sub>\u00a0annually
Start of construction<\/strong>: 2023
Expected commission date<\/strong>:August 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEWS WRAP<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udca8 The 110MW Impofu North wind farm in Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape has reached commercial operation, developer Enel Green Power reports. It\u2019s the first of three wind farms that make up the 330MW Impofu Wind Power Farms Complex to reach this milestone. The complex, which comprises Impofu North, Impofu East and Impofu West, has a power purchase agreement with Air Liquide and Sasol to wheel electricity through the grid to Sasol\u2019s Secunda operations in Mpumalanga, where Air Liquide operates an oxygen production facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Three South African artists, Falko, Motel and Bushy, painted murals on wind turbines as part of a Blowing Art Initiative at the Impofu Wind Farm Complex in Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape. This one is painted by Falko. I love the earring door. (Photo: Enel Green Power)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0 Revego Fund Managers is exploring a merger with HI Holdings that would create a renewable energy-focused fund with assets exceeding R13.3-billion,\u00a0Bloomberg reports<\/a>. Revego Africa Energy Fund\u2019s\u00a0portfolio<\/a>\u00a0includes the Khobab, Loeriesfontein, Noupoort and Aurora wind farms as well as Konkoonsies, Aries, Soutpan, Kathu and Springbok solar plants and Bokpoort concentrated solar plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u26a1\ufe0f Eskom officially launched\u00a0Eskom Green<\/a>, its utility-scale renewable energy business, this week. The press release states that \u201cEskom Green will have about 6GW of carbon-free electricity available up to 2030, as a result of Eskom\u2019s broad pipeline of renewables and storage initiatives currently under development.\u201d It also states that at least 2GW of renewable energy and pumped storage projects are expected to advance from 2026. This includes the 75MW solar project at the Lethabo coal power station site, it says. Not mentioned in the media release, but also in the pipeline is the\u00a01.5GW Tubatse pumped storage project<\/a>\u00a0in Limpopo. Eskom currently has renewable generation capacity of around 3.4GW (2.7GW of existing pumped storage, 600MW of hydro and 100MW of wind), according to its 2025 Integrated Report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The old buildings of the main campus of the University of Cape Town.\u00a090% of its electricity consumption<\/a>\u00a0will be wheeled renewable energy starting from 2027, says energy trader Discovery Green.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0University of Cape Town<\/strong>\u00a0has signed an agreement with energy trader\u00a0Discovery Green<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to buy renewable energy for its main and health sciences campuses. The wheeling agreement will help UCT decrease its scope 2 emissions (indirect emissions from purchasing electricity). \u201cWith the many old heritage buildings on most of its campuses, UCT has limited roof space that it can add solar PV onto, meaning that we have to look off-campus to increase our purchase of renewable energy,\u201d says Manfred Braune, UCT\u2019s director for environmental sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udca6 Lesotho<\/strong>\u00a0has signed a memorandum of agreement with US-based Convalt Energy to develop renewable energy projects and facilitate a large-scale data centre project. What\u2019s proposed is the development of the Kobong Hydropower and AI Data Centre Project,\u00a0Green Building Africa<\/a>\u00a0reports. It entails up to\u00a01.2GW of hydro-power generation<\/a>\u00a0capacity, and around 4.6GW of solar generation capacity and up to 4GWh of battery storage, according to Convalt Energy. \u201cProgression of this project remains subject to the ordinary course of development milestones, including feasibility studies, permitting, financing, regulatory approvals and definitive project agreements, says Convalt Energy\u00a0in a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2600\ufe0f Still in Lesotho. The\u00a0Lesotho Highlands Water Project<\/strong>\u00a0has issued a request for proposals for a feasibility study for\u00a0floating solar power plants<\/strong>\u00a0in the Katse and Mohale dams. The country imports nearly half of its electricity from South Africa and Mozambique, but has ambitions to become electricity independent by 2030.\u00a0You can find the RFP document here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2600\ufe0f The Zambian government has signed an implementation agreement for the\u00a016MW Northrise Solar Photovoltaic Power Project<\/a>\u00a0in Ndola. The project is being developed by\u00a0Lifesong for Orphans Zambia<\/strong>, which is the majority shareholder in LightCon Zambia, a solar electrical engineering and construction company. The grid-connected project is expected to be commissioned in July. The $12-million investment is phase one of a larger development. Lifesong intends to add another 35MW in phase two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udca6 British International Investment<\/strong>\u00a0(BII), the UK\u2019s development finance institution, has committed $20-million to\u00a0Azana Electric Group<\/strong>\u00a0to support the construction of\u00a0run-of-river hydropower projects<\/a>\u00a0across Africa. The first project is expected to be in Zambia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcca The\u00a0African Development Bank<\/a>\u00a0(AfDB) has launched a\u00a0dashboard<\/a>\u00a0to track progress on the Mission 300 initiative, which was established with the aim to connect an additional 300-million Africans to electricity by 2030. According to the dashboard, 5.2-million people have been connected to electricity through AfDB Mission\u2019s 300 supported operations. The tracker aims to strengthen transparency, improve monitoring and accelerate delivery of electricity access, says the AfDB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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EVENTS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u26a1\ufe0f The Africa Energy Forum 2026 is being held at the Cape Town Convention Centre from 16-19 June.\u00a0Find more information here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcbb Creamer Media is hosting a webinar on embedding ESG (environmental, social and governance) in SA’s value chains on 17 June 2026.\u00a0Register here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83c\udf43 The Bio360 conference and exhibition will take place at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburg from 17-8 June 2026. The focus will be on all bioenergy sectors, including biogas, landfill gas, bioelectricity, bioheat and more.\u00a0Details and registration<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u26a1\ufe0f The 44th International Energy Workshop will be held in Cape Town from 22-24 June. The event will be held at the University of Cape Town.\u00a0Details and registration<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Out to Lunch with The Outlier<\/a>\u00a0will sit down with Dr Werner van Antwerpen, Head of Corporate Advisory at Growthpoint Properties, on\u00a024 June 2026 at 1pm<\/a>\u00a0to unpack what electricity wheeling is and whether it actually puts money back in tenants’ pockets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attendance is free. Sign up to be an Outlier member for the recording.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1388,1380],"tags":[268,1418,1407,421,40],"newsletter-post":[],"site":[],"class_list":["post-91329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-outlier-renew","category-this-week-in-charts","tag-china","tag-nersa","tag-reipppp","tag-solar","tag-south-africa"],"acf":{"big_number":"","big_number_caption":"","big_number_link":"","big_number_background":"","big_number_text_colour":"#000000","big_number_icon":false,"big_number_wide":"yes","featured_chart":false,"flourish_chart_id":"","flourish_sub_title":"","flourish_chart_width":"medium","is_newsletter_post":"No","post_style":"bc","show_on_front":"Yes","link_through":"Yes","chart_url":"","background_colour":"#0089AA","text_colour":"#FFFFFF"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91339,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91329\/revisions\/91339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91329"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter-post?post=91329"},{"taxonomy":"site","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/site?post=91329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}