EIS-AFRICA

A Renewable Energy Resource Database for South Africa

By Jillian Muller (CSIR, Pretoria, South Africa)

A national renewable energy resource database has recently been compiled for South Africa.  The renewable resources include: biomass, mini and macro hydro, and solar energy potentials.  The South African wind resource is in the process of being compiled and will be completed by the end of June 2001.

§      potential has been modelled from wood (unprocessed and processed), agricultural, and grass residues on an annual basis.

§      potential has been modelled for both macro and micro power potential on an annual basis.  Macro power potential represents accumulated river flow, while micro power potential reflects local river flow or non-accumulated flow (i.e. flow over a 1 km stretch of river).

§ energy potential, mean annual and monthly, has been modelled for global (direct plus diffuse) radiation.  The model includes the atmospheric components of cloud cover and transmissivity, as well as the geometric component.

Each renewable resource has been modelled within a geographical information system (GIS) at a horizontal spatial scale of one square kilometre (i.e. 1 x 1km grid cell size).  The database is valuable for national scale research, in order to highlight areas of potential which can then be targeted for more detailed analysis.  A hybrid optimisation model will be linked to the renewable energy database, allowing for analysis of the optimum design of a hybrid system based on the available renewable energy resources.  The optimisation model includes all of the four above-mentioned resources (biomass, micro hydro, solar, and wind). The CSIR, Eskom, and Department of Minerals and Energy jointly fund the project. Details of the resource potentials can be found at the following URL: http://www.csir.co.za/environmentek/sarerd/index.html. For further information, please  contact Jillian Muller at the CSIR (CSIR – Environmentek, PO Box 395 Pretoria, 0001, South Africa.) She can be reached by telephone:  +27 12 841 3992,  fax: +27 12 841 2028 or e-mail: jmuller@csir.co.za.