Replace coal with sunlight to supply SA energy, expert says

While conceding that wind power was an attractive technology, Paul Gauché senior researcher and director of the Solar Thermal Energy Research Group (Sterg), said that "the problem with both photovoltaic (PV) solar energy and wind is their intermittence," he told News24.

He is proposing an investment in concentrated solar power (CSP) where a set of mirrors is used to "concentrate the sunlight and basically what you do is you can then generate steam," he said.

Gauché told News24 that CSP is an expensive technology at around R2 per kWh (Kilowatt hour) but in the long term costs would be reduced, especially as supplies of fossil fuels decline.

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