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A comment on South Africa imported a power station's worth of solar panels(3.4GW) in 6 months. Parent comment

Re:South Africa imported a power station's worth of solar pa... by brianwawok on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @05:19AM (#37567377)
Wait, why is it corrupt to build more power?
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Re:South Africa imported a power station's worth of solar pa... by salmonlogs on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @05:30AM (#37567446)
The article suggests the solar capacity is aggregate of installs by individuals because the power is so unreliable from the grid
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Re:South Africa imported a power station's worth of solar pa... by Schattenbaer on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @07:07AM (#37568243)
It's not being built by Eskom.

The solar in question is mainly being installed by individuals at their own cost because the power grid is failing around them due to corruption and mismanagement.

Example article on Eskom

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/south-africa-corruption...

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Re:South Africa imported a power station's worth of solar pa... by milesvp on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @08:19AM (#37568899)
South Africa used to have some of the cheapest power in the world. I have a friend who grew up there and he said it had never even occurred to him to calculate the cost of running a 100W bulb before he moved to the US. Further, at one point the electrical grid (and most infrastructure) was considered some of the best in the world. For me, it’s telling that solar is cost effective at all given how cheap and stable their power was 20 years ago. By all accounts the corruption in the country has grown to make their power unreliable enough that solar makes sense.
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