Solar Water Heating in South Africa

Unless you've been in another world you will have heard of the critical power shortages experienced in South Africa which resulted in mines closing down which in turn drove up the Platinum price by 30%. The Government is now driving alternative water heating systems using solar power ... a resource which is plentiful in our country.
According to the goverment "preliminary results indicate that solar-water heating systems are energy efficient and excellent at energy saving." Of that I have no doubt but when it comes to cost effectiveness there is another story and is an important reason why individual consumers will not invest in solar water heating because it is almost impossible to get an economic return on such a heating system. It's also stated that Eskom aims to install 90 000 solar-water heating systems in the greater Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality in Port Elizabeth. In addition it is reported that Eskom will implement 3,000,000 solar water heating systems over the next 3 years.under a subsidy scheme the details of which have not yet been published... Source Cape Times
In New Zealand a $500 subsidy is provided for those who install solar water heating. Nobody took up the subsidy in 2007.
There is an interesting commentary on the New Zealand situation here. Based upon the New Zealand story we should all be very wary of what might happen to our tax money in these subsidy situations.

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solar, water, heating, eskom, south africa