“Rural areas in South Africa face large challenges when it comes to electricity supply. Grid extension projects are time intensive and require a large capital investment. Non-grid electrification is an option in these areas, but must be sustainable and easily maintainable to give maximum energy supply efficiency for the area. As South Africa has a large amount of the resources needed for current renewable energy technology application, it has great potential for implementation of this kind. In addition to renewable energy techniques of energy generation being environmentally friendly, there is no necessity for fuels and therefore after initial capital investment, there are only minor operating costs associated with this. For rural environments, this is important. For non-grid electrification, different renewable energy technologies must be investigated to ascertain the most efficient and productive means of energy generation and distribution in each area to enable the area to be able to generate, store and distribute electricity and be come independent and self-sustainable. The implication of implementation of this scheme must then be considered.”
