Cape Town - As Eskom announced the implementation of load shedding until the weekend, the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has lauded its 41 schools that have installed solar panels to reduce their environmental impact, save on electricity costs and reduce their burden on the national grid.
Education MEC Davis Maynier said Tamboerskloof Primary School had also installed a battery storage system which will allow electricity to remain on during load shedding.
On Tuesday, Eskom announced it would be implementing Stage 2 load shedding daily until Saturday due to a shortage of generation capacity as a result of breakdowns and delays in returning generating units to service.
The school projects are funded either through School Governing Body funds or by entering into lease agreements with firms such as Sun Exchange.
“We are seeing schools using solar and other energy-saving options for a number of reasons. Many are conscious of the environmental impact of their energy use, and solar panels, LED lighting and smart metering help to reduce their energy usage.
“It has the advantage of reducing costs, and in the case of installations including batteries, can keep the lights on during load shedding,” Maynier said.
Through a pilot project with Stellenbosch University (SU), 25 schools replaced their existing lights with energy-saving LEDs.
The campaign ran in 2021, and was headed by SU’s Department of Social Impact and the Faculty of Engineering.
Following on this, a list of 100 no-fee high enrolment schools have been identified, with 25 of these schools benefiting from the LED lighting project in the 2022/2023 financial year.
The project is expected to be completed by October 2022.
Professor Thinus Booysen of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering said: “We managed to reduce the schools’ energy bills with anything from 21% to as much as 39%.”