Commission informed about missed deadlines in solar boiler project

Officials from the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy have briefed the Parliament’s Committee on Electricity and Energy on the progress of the solar water heater installation programme.

The project to install one million solar water heaters was launched in 2009, but the government has missed its target of having them installed by 2014.

The aim was to reduce the country’s energy constraints.

The department has installed 58,000 of the 87,000 solar boilers.

Project Manager Elizabeth Marabwa explains some of the challenges.

“Theft of material or components from municipal storage facilities. We also suffered from interference from the construction mafia who demanded 30% of the installers, mainly in KwaZulu-Natal and a little bit in the North West. Although we managed most of it, it slowed down the installation considerably.”