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South Africa

New detailed solar resource maps released for African nation

Renewable Energy Magazine has recently written about the rise and rise of South African renewables, a trend that is reflected by this month’s announcement that GeoModel Solar has released the most detailed solar resource maps for South Africa, which reveal sites with highest potential for solar project development.
New detailed solar resource maps released for African nation

GeoModel Solar, a leading international provider of solar resource data, online site assessment tools, and expert consultancy, has released a new set of solar maps for South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland. The abundant global and direct solar radiation is now mapped in the best possible quality, which will support the development of photovoltaic and concentrated solar energy in the country.

"Uniqueness of these maps is reflected in their very high spatial resolution of 250 metres. As regards temporal resolution, the underlying solar database represents more than 18 years of historical data (1994 - to present) with a time step of up to 15 minutes," said Marcel Suri, Managing Director of GeoModel Solar.
"The solar radiation received in some regions can vary by up to 20% within a distance of 10 kilometres. Hence, it is very important to have access to data with high accuracy and spatial resolution, making it possible to predict a solar plant's output with greater confidence," he added.

High reliability of maps was achieved thanks to the use of data from SolarGIS®, the most accurate solar resource database available for Southern Africa. SolarGIS®, developed by GeoModel Solar, has been extensively validated by a number of local ground measurements in partnership with Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies, Stellenbosch University. "These maps are a very useful source of solar resource information. Utilization of such information can have a significant impact on profitability and efficiency of projects," said Prof. Wikus van Niekerk, Director of the Centre.
The maps and data can be accessed through the SolarGIS web-based platform.

The SolarGIS platform also provides access to the online site assessment tools: iMaps and pvPlanner. iMaps, a state-of-the-art interactive mapping tool, enables identification of the best locations for solar energy projects. Once a site is selected, photovoltaic electricity yield can be interactively estimated with the help of pvPlanner.

GeoModel Solar supports planning, financing, and operation of photovoltaic, concentrated photovoltaic and concentrated solar power energy systems. The company has executed prefeasibility study for the Upington solar park and for more than 20 other projects in South Africa.

For additional information:

GeoModel Solar

Baterías con premio en la gran feria europea del almacenamiento de energía
El jurado de la feria ees (la gran feria europea de las baterías y los sistemas acumuladores de energía) ya ha seleccionado los productos y soluciones innovadoras que aspiran, como finalistas, al gran premio ees 2021. Independientemente de cuál o cuáles sean las candidaturas ganadoras, la sola inclusión en este exquisito grupo VIP constituye todo un éxito para las empresas. A continuación, los diez finalistas 2021 de los ees Award (ees es una de las cuatro ferias que integran el gran evento anual europeo del sector de la energía, The smarter E).