South Africa has many factories, warehouses, schools and hospitals – big buildings with large rooftop spaces. In such a sunny country, these flat surfaces would be perfect for large photovoltaic solar systems that could generate enough renewable energy to supply themselves, and feed into the national grid. This would reduce the amount of coal that South Africa’s national electricity provider would need to burn. Renewable energy engineer and PhD candidate Mamahloko Senatla-Jaane was part of a team who researched how commercial buildings could be set up to serve as strategic assets for decarbonisation and increase the security of South Africa’s power supply.
How much space is available and how suitable is it?
We calculated that 111 million square metres (m²) of rooftop space is available on the roofs of universities, schools, hospitals and commercial buildings like shops, warehouses, office blocks and factories.
