First South African town cutting off Eskom

[Newsfeed]

First South African town cutting off Eskom

Riversdale in the Western Cape has established a solar and battery storage farm that supplies almost twice the capacity it requires.

 

[quovadis]

Incredible achievement.

 

[SlowInternet]

Well done to them

 

[1am7h30n3]

That's a beautiful church building.

 

[Gordon_R]

Not to be a downer, but the majority of the funding for this project came from the Western Cape government (aka the taxpayers). Not every town is lucky enough to benefit from such political allocation of resources.

 

[ThinkCentre]

City of Cape Town started the same initiative, but it seems the municipality lost wind along the way as they were charging the hell out of its citizens for the power and left it there!

 

[supersunbird]

That's not a MyBB headline, this is a MyBB headline:

South Africa's not richest town kisses Eskom goodbye

 

[Pegging]

Paid for by speeding fines

 

[supersunbird]

Paid for by speeding fines

As long as they equipment is calibrated and all other legal requirements are met, what is wrong with that? A tax on those unable to keep their vehicles at or below the speed indicated by the road signage.

 

[Devo1]

Not to be a downer, but the majority of the funding for this project came from the Western Cape government (aka the taxpayers). Not every town is lucky enough to benefit from such political allocation of resources.

Imagine 04 November another party wins the municipal elections in Riversdale.

"Thanks for the power DA, appreciate it"

 

[Bad Ballie]

Good, the government deserves to be cut off although I am sure the government will try leverage infrastructure fees to keep the loot coming in anyway. They are doing it in cities all over the country where people are telling them to sod off already.

 

[dualmeister]

Next ...

Afrikaans town’s own solar plant kept the lights on during Eskom outage

Orania recently ran entirely off-grid for 13.5 hours while Eskom was performing maintenance on the Northern Cape town’s grid.

mybroadband.co.za

 

[Sargeant]

I see the MyBroadband writer made good use of the expense account for this story.

 

[acidrain]

City of Cape Town started the same initiative, but it seems the municipality lost wind along the way as they were charging the hell out of its citizens for the power and left it there!

Are you referring to the Atlanrtis Project because that is complete

Cape Town Unveils R220 Million Solar Power Plant to Cut Eskom Dependence​

By Chris Williams​

• Cape Town Unveils R220 Million Solar Power Plant to Cut Eskom Dependence
  • What the city is buying instead
  • Jobs, a stadium, and a name

Atlantis — Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has switched on Helderhoop, a R220 million solar and battery plant the city says is the first hybrid station built by a metro in South Africa. The site covers 15 hectares, about 21 rugby fields, with 12 850 panels and two utility-scale batteries. It is running under controlled tests while commissioning finishes.


The name, “Bright Hope”, was proposed by Vinolio Cloete, then a matric pupil at Saxonsea High School, in a public competition. Energy mayoral committee member Xanthea Limberg joined the launch. Atlantis is marking 50 years as a community.

 

[XSV1]

I wonder what the municipality intends to do for backup power during, say, a week of heavy cloud cover during winter. An effing big diesel generator?

 

[Praeses]

I wonder what the municipality intends to do for backup power during, say, a week of heavy cloud cover during winter. An effing big diesel generator?

Yeah 10MWh battery storage seems too small for such a large array. Very dense clouds will cause the array to produce very little and therefore the battery will only carry the city for 2 - 3 days.

 

[quovadis]

Yeah 10MWh battery storage seems too small for such a large array. Very dense clouds will cause the array to produce very little and therefore the battery will only carry the city for 2 - 3 days.

I would imagine they're wheeling/importing/exporting too.

 

[ThinkCentre]

Are you referring to the Atlanrtis Project because that is complete

I was brought under the impression that City of Cape Town is going completely without Eskom!

 

[Fuzzbox]

One more nail in ESKOMS coffin

 

[acidrain]

I was brought under the impression that City of Cape Town is going completely without Eskom!

That's would likely be a decade long achievement if not more.