By: Christy van der Merwe
Published: 11 Apr 08 - 17:07
Solar power was playing an illuminating role in Johannesburg
inner city regeneration efforts, as solar streetlights have
been installed on Kenmare street, in Yeoville as a part of
the Hillbrow, Berea, Yeoville upgrade being carried out by
the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA).
Broadwing Technologies installed the three solar streetlights.
"Evaluation was done together with the JDA, to monitor
performance, and it was found that the solar street lights
were not only satisfactory, but exceeded their [JDA's] expectations,"
Broadwing Technologies director Dan Hurwitz told Engineering
News Online.
The cost of the installation of solar streetlights was said
to compare favourably with the cost of installation of conventional
streetlights. "The capital cost is more or less equal
to the traditional grid-connected streetlight, but there are
a number of additional benefits," Hurwitz added.
Lifecycle maintenance costs of the installation are favourable
as the Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs used in the streetlights,
use a lower voltage to produce a brighter light and can be
used without replacement for about 20 years. "The thin-film
solar panel used has a very high temperature tolerance, and
is immune to damage from hail," stated Hurwitz.
Renewable energy from the sun meant independence from the
Eskom coal-based generation of power, which in turn meant
cost savings and environmental gains.
Hurwitz added that another advantage was that the installation
offered instant electrification, and there was no need to
trench cables or wait for connection to the grid. The installation
could take as little as 30 minutes, as the unit would arrive
at the location partly assembled.
The streetlights were manufactured locally.
"The idea came from other countries - we saw that it
was being utilised in China and Europe and we actually looked
at importing one of these units from China, but we found that
the quality of the product that we received from China would
not suit the South African climate and consumer market, and
therefore we opted to design our own system in South Africa
for South Africans," said Hurwitz.
There was also the possibility of retrofitting existing high
pressure sodium and the older mercury vapour street lights,
with more efficient LED lights, which would also result in
alleviating strain on the Eskom national grid.
"Even though it is still grid connected using the existing
infrastructure, we believe that it could save up to a third,
and our estimation is that for every 12 000 or 15 000 street
lights that are retrofitted, you could save 1 MW. We believe
that City power, in Johannesburg, has about 140 000 streetlights
installed just in their region, so if one took the whole country,
doing these replacements could save a significant number of
megawatts and it would certainly help with the electricity
crisis that the country is facing," Hurwitz concluded.
2. Oil Depletion Protocol
3. Global Public Media
Post Carbon Institute founder Julian Darley
got a stunning admission from T. Boone Pickens, legendary
Texas oilman and chair of BP Capital, that global Peak Oil
occurred in 2006. Darley spoke with Pickens at the recent Houston meeting of
ASPO USA (Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas--USA).
Pickens isn't the only one who thinks global oil peaked
in 2006. Chris Skrebowski, editor of the UK Petroleum Review, speaks
with Julian Darley about the remarkable new oil report from
the German-based Energy Watch Group, which states that world oil production
peaked in 2006 and will decline by half as soon as 2030.
Post Carbon Institute founder Julian Darley
got a stunning admission from T. Boone Pickens, legendary
Texas oilman and chair of BP Capital, that global Peak Oil
occurred in 2006.