The SA solar industry has seen remarkable growth in the past decade. Perhaps due to circumstances, the industry has outperformed many others, and bucked economic growth trends.commended SA for being the first country on the continent to achieve 1GW of solar PV energy. The country is well-primed for solar with an average of 2,500 hours ofper year. Our average solar-radiation level ranges between 4.5kWh/m² and 6.5kWh/m² per day, which is roughly 40% more than Central Europe.
These circumstances have all led to the explosion of embedded generation developments, in essence PV panels installed on rooftops. What we have seen since is a mushrooming of solar plants all over the country — our current installed solar capacity is estimated to be 2,5GW.The value of correct design has been learnt the hard way. We’ve learnt that the ideal orientation of solar systems in this country is facing north at 30 degrees.
There are currently about 10 major players in the solar industry, and hundreds of SMEs if you count every electrical company that installs the odd solar system. We all have different approaches, but as an industry we have grown together. However, solar companies need to understand that the growth phase we are in now will not continue forever. The growth in solar installations is far outperforming the growth in building developments. This means the market will reach saturation at some point, with no new building roofs available.