Umamah Bakharia | ub@radioislam.co.za

2 min read
4 November 2022 | 11:30 am CAT

As South Africa faces mounts of power cuts and increased electricity bills, experts suggest an alternative, safer solution towards renewable energy: solar panels.

Photo credit: Green Building Africa

Radio Islam International spoke to the director at the centre for renewable & sustainable energy studies at Stellebosch University, Prof Sampson Mamphweli, on greener energy.

“You can go off-grid where you can install a system big enough to take all your load – in most cases, and you would then combine that with solar water heaters so that you can benefit from the efficiency,” he says.

He adds that this system helps with high electricity bills and power safety during loadshedding.

“You can have a system that has additional solar panels where you can generate some power and store it in the batteries as well, and then during loadshedding, you can get power from there,” says Prof Mamphweli.

For lower costs, Prof Mamphweli advises using inverters and smaller solar panels to store energy.

Listen to the full interview here: