South Africa is continually facing power shortages and is looking for ways to combat some of the everyday problems these shortages cause, such as traffic light outages. The country’s National Energy Efficiency Agency (NEEA) is looking at solar powered robots (traffic signals are commonly termed robots in South Africa) to aid in the congestion of traffic during power outages.
The agency is in the process of finalizing agreements for the provision of solar-powered robots at over 2,000 major intersections.
While the installation of solar-powered robots is more costly, the NEEA says the costs are recovered within the first year of operation. The agency is looking to South Africa’s state-utility Eskom and corporations to help fund the project. NEEA says the benefit would be from productivity increases, as fewer employees would be late for work owing to congested roads caused by the traffic congestion.
A pilot project took off in Cape Town in October 2007 at an eight-robot intersection and solar panel traffic lights have been used in other countries around the world for some time.
South Africa is also looking at another solar project for everyday consumers of hot water. Eskom is looking to launch its solar-powered water heater incentive program; however, it has been delayed until there are registered suppliers covering the country.
The incentive assistance will be provided directly to the customer via a "discounted price" through a supplier registered with Eskom. The company said that energy savings created by using solar power, rather than electricity, would decrease a consumer’s electricity bill by 20% to 40%. Another bonus of the technology is the environmental benefits of using solar power instead of fossil fuel generated electricity.
