• LookSee has highlighted the suburbs with the highest potential to generate solar energy in South Africa.
• The top 30 suburbs could generate as much as 850MWh of solar energy per day at a maximum.
• Gauteng appears to generate the most energy compared to KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape given its geographic location.

Today we want to discuss potential energy. No, not the amount of energy an object may have depending on its state but rather the potential for solar energy generation in a particular area.

Standard Bank recently launched LookSee. This online tool gives you an idea of how much solar energy you could potentially generate on your property. It’s a quick and dirty way to determine whether solar is a viable solution to power your energy needs.

The Department of Energy estimates that South Africa receives an average of 2 500 hours of sunshine per year with solar radiation amounting to between 4.5 and 6.5kWh per square meter per day.

Using its tools, LookSee estimates how much solar power you could generate based on a 3D grid it generates of your roof, the roof direction, roof slope, the area you’re in and the solar radiance. Using this data it has found the top three areas in each of the areas the tool works for (Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape) to give us an idea of the top three suburbs for energy generation.

What is rather impressive is the fact that according to LookSee, the top 30 suburbs could collectively capture 850MWh of solar power per day, which is nearly one stage of loadshedding. Granted this the maximum and doesn’t account for very cloudy days and of course, that’s a collective figure which isn’t all that much when South Africa’s total demand for electricity on Wednesday evening was 32 336MW.

“The number and size of houses in a suburb obviously has a significant impact on the amount of solar power can be generated. However, Gauteng suburbs generally perform better on the solar generation scale. This is due to the level of photovoltaic emissions or solar irradiance lowering as you move away from the equator,” executive head at LookSee, Marc du Plessis.

“What’s clear from the analysis is that your home’s structure and where you live has a real impact on how a solar system will perform and the electricity you could expect to generate,” adds the executive.

The table above tends to favour more affluent areas. A quick look around the areas using Google Maps reveals that houses in the top three suburbs in each province tend to be larger. As such, there is more roof area available to install solar as compared to a house in a township with a smaller roof.

With that having been said we’d be curious to see how much more solar power could be captured in areas such as Limpopo and the North West should LookSee’s Solar Score tool become available there.

While LookSee can give you a rough idea of whether solar will power your home its important to get a professional to give you a more accurate estimate before you decide to invest a significant amount on solar power.

What is clear, however, is that whether it’s solar, backup batteries or generators, investing in backup power solutions that don’t rely on Eskom are a necessity and not a luxury in South Africa. As a reminder of that, Eskom moves to Stage 6 at 16:00 this afternoon.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]