Renaldo Gouws’ solar panel ‘excrement’ upsets Eskom

Following claims made by a Renaldo Gouws that Eskom was selling solar panels at Cape Town’s Formula E Grand Prix event, the power utility’s spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said the accusation was nothing but a “load of [excrement]”.

Gouws styles himself as “that crazy South African who fuels his existence on sarcasm, facts, and common sense. | Business owner | politician | YouTuber” on his Twitter account and appears to be a Democratic Alliance ward councillor in Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape province.

@renaldogouws Eskom selling solar panels at the Formula E Grand Prix #renaldogouws #formulae #eskom #loadshedding ♬ original sound – Renaldo Gouws

Gouws stated on his TikTok account: “I’m at the Formula E Grand Prix in Cape Town and as the country is experiencing stage 6/7 load shedding. Eskom has a store podium here and is selling solar panels. Instead of fixing load shedding, they’re telling people to buy solar panels. Only in South Africa.”

‘Demonstration of Eskom’s microgrid’

But Mantshantsha said Eskom was not selling and had never sold any solar panels.

“That was a demonstration of a microgrid Eskom is rolling out across the country to communities far away from grid connections,” he said.

“And it also was a demonstration of the electric vehicle charging stations Eskom is rolling out across the country.”

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Eskom last Saturday revealed it was positioning itself to play an important role in supporting the development of the electric mobility (e-mobility) sector in South Africa.

At Africa’s Green Economy Summit in Cape Town recently, Eskom group executive for distribution Monde Bala said the organisation had pledged to be part of the anchor market for electric vehicles (EVs) to make a positive contribution towards local market stimulation.

According to Bala, Eskom had joined the list of local sponsors for the E-Fest with a R2.1 million sponsorship which would profile its microgrid technology and mobility solution.

“Eskom has already submitted the residential time-of-use charging tariff to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa for approval,” he said.

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“This will enable EV owners to achieve significant savings when using the off-peak and standard periods to charge their cars, encouraging EV uptake and boosting electricity sales.

Zero emissions

“In line with Eskom’s Just Energy Transition vision of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, we are also aiming for zero emissions from our sizeable fleet of vehicles. We aspire to replace our entire fleet of conventional vehicles with EVs by 2040.”

While it also served as an alternative solution to addressing load shedding, Eskom would also deploy microgrids to support the growth of e-mobility in the country.

Bala said Eskom currently had four sites being powered by the microgrid technology including in Ficksburg (Free State), Lynedoch (Western Cape), Swartkop (Northern Cape) supplying renewable electricity to over 200 households, a police station and businesses around the country.

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He said Eskom was conducting feasibility studies on more than 80 project sites around the country and the roll-out of these projects would be phased in over the next five years.

“The deployment of the microgrids at Swartkop and Ficksburg serves as a proof of concept in using of microgrids in remote areas which are difficult to reach or expensive to electrify through the conventional means of electrification,” he said.

“On the other hand, the installation of the microgrid at Lynedoch residential area demonstrates how this technology can be used to complement the grid, serving as backup electricity supply to households, hospitals and other facilities.

“Battery storage will also be a key enabler of e-mobility. Eskom is making notable progress in this regard with the construction of the first energy storage facility under Eskom’s flagship battery energy storage systems [Bess] project already begun at the Elandskop Bess site in KwaZulu-Natal in December last year.”

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