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Mar 10, 2023 / in Uncategorized
Europe’s people-powered green transition

As South Africans contend with the likelihood of advanced electricity load shedding stages for the foreseeable future, many homeowners are considering installing solar panels connected to inverters and batteries especially since Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced during his budget speech that South Africans can receive up to R15,000 in tax rebates for solar panels.

South Africans may want to take a leaf out of the Europeans’ playbook as per the following information lifted from the Anthropocene newsletter (https://www.anthropocene.info/): More than two million people have contributed to citizen-led green energy initiatives in Europe since the year 2000, according to a new study. The analysis represents the first large-scale and systematic attempt to quantify the scope and impact of such citizen-led efforts.

An estimated 10,540 citizen-led green energy initiatives and 22,830 projects involving 2,010,600 people with an installed renewable capacity of 7.2-9.9 gigawatts and representing financial investments of 6.2-11.3 billion Euros have taken place over the past two decades, the researchers report in the journal Scientific Reports. Because of the lack of comprehensive data, the authors say, these estimates are likely to be conservative.

The initiatives range from an Italian community that installed wind turbines and solar panels on public buildings to provide free-of-charge electricity, to a Lithuanian housing association in an apartment building that installed a geothermal heating system.

.South Africans may just decide to get away as far as possible from Eskom’s coal fired generators. Although we at Filcon Filters are suppliers of filtration equipment (not solar panels), we nevertheless care passionately about the environment.