Taste of the future — pilot project powers informal settlement with solar energy

Samuel Manamela, caretaker at the Malusi Youth Development Centre, walks out of his solar-powered home. (Photo:Felix Dlangamandla)

By Onke Ngcuka

2 Apr 2023

A pilot project has taken off in the informal settlement of Melusi, in Pretoria East, where a university and a lighting company have powered a shack that had no electricity for approximately five years. The project is a taste of the future potential of electrification in informal settlements.

It’s been five years since a caretaker in the informal settlement of Melusi in Pretoria East had power in his home. But thanks to a pilot project partnership, the shack where 33-year-old Samuel Manamela lives, will now be powered by solar energy.

Manamela has been staying on the premises of the Malusi Youth Development Organisation, where he volunteers, for about five years. The only source of light visible in his well-kept shack that houses his wife and child, is a portable lamp charged at the centre he looks after, while his television sits idle on a table adjacent to bed.

“All along I was using rechargeable lights,” said Manamela. “It means a lot to me [to have power]. I’m so happy! I will be the first person to experience renewable energy [in the area],” said the jubilant caretaker after solar power was installed in his home. “It’s a step in the right direction… It will make my life easier, because I won’t struggle anymore in terms of charging cellphones, etc. I will access television as well!

LighTec technicians Brian Mataya and McDonald Mutuva install a solar panel on the roof of a shack in the informal settlement of Melusi. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla

Project origins

The pilot project that powered Manamela’s home came about after University of the Witwatersrand professors David Everatt and Imraan Valodia wrote an op-ed for Daily Maverick about how informal settlements could be at the forefront of bolstering South Africa’s transition to renewable energy such as solar.

“We can’t wait for the government anymore to do something. It’s up to us as the private sector to have buy-in from the communities to ensure that low-income homes have electrification and some type of energy source,” said Roos.

In the piece, the professors reference wheeling – generating power to sell back to the Eskom grid – that could be a means for solar-powered informal settlements to earn an income.

Professor Everatt told Our Burning Planet:“It was Imraan’s [Volodia] idea way back… he said the poor being able to harvest sunlight and sell the power back to the grid, can effectively deal with what goes into social grants at the moment because there’s unlimited sunshine and everyone benefits because we all want more power in the grid.”

Sponsoring a pilot

Mario Roos, CEO of lighting and electrical company LighTec, heard the professor speak of the concept over radio, contacted him, and agreed to sponsor a pilot project in Melusi township. Thursday saw LighTec install solar panels on the rooftops of two shacks: one that houses a young family, and the other a young man and his mother, who works as a security guard.

Roos told Our Burning Planet that being involved in the pilot was beyond providing power to a low-income household, but also about alleviating poverty.

“We can’t wait for the government anymore to do something. It’s up to us as the private sector to have buy-in from the communities to ensure that low-income homes have electrification and some type of energy source,” said Roos.

The pilot, which took off on the morning of Thursday 30 March, saw two shacks fitted with a solar panel and a small power unit box (brick) including a battery and inverter. Professor Willie Cronje of Wits School of Electrical & Information Engineering created what he calls a power brick – one of the first manufactured in South Africa – through his company PeCo Power.

“We realised the formal grid will never reach many people, and that they needed something that will give them light and charging of a phone and eventually entertainment, and refrigeration. We identified that need and started doing research to develop something where it can start small, and is affordable, and you can keep adding another brick,” said Professor Cronje.

According to a study by Sustainable Energy Africa, more than 4.4 million people in South Africa live in townships. The study further states that environmental and suitability factors can often raise concerns over providing basic services such as electrification, as well as the financial viability of such a service.

Technicians install a solar panel on the roof in Melusi informal settlement. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

Safety hazards

The lack of power often leaves residents with few energy options such as liquid paraffin and candles; both being hazardous to their safety. Vincent Rampou, chairperson of Ward 55 in Melusi 3, told Our Burning Planet that a woman recently lost her life to an uncontrolled fire caused by paraffin.

“These solar panels are going to help us a great deal because our people are dying in shacks [because of portable gas cookers], so solar panels are going to be safe for us and our people. So we’re very grateful,” Rampou said. “We would be so grateful for the roll-out of this pilot project in our community. We know that we won’t lose people, and our kids will be able to study properly because kids who go to school don’t have light, and they end up using candles.”

Powering phones too

Executive Director of Malusi Youth Development Organisation, Hlakudi Malatji, told Our Burning Planet that the Manamela’s home was chosen for installation because excess power could also be wheeled back into the centre, and used to power phones for those living nearby. Having your phone on is important for a community such as Melusi, whose residents rely on gig work and need to be readily contactable, said Professor Everatt.

“Our community is dominated by unemployed people who are looking for job opportunities online… in the absence of power, you become doomed as there is nothing you can do; you can’t compete with the outside world. Hence we believe that this power being installed will definitely elevate our people in a number of ways. Our young people are also doing school work, research on gadgets at the centre, and those devices need to be charged,” said Malatji.

Samuel Manamela, caretaker at the Malusi Youth Development Centre, walks out of his solar-powered home. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

Data about the performance of the power brick, how many hours it can power for, whether it will be stolen, etc, will be collected over up to six months. Thereafter, the data will be used to build a case to local municipalities and other private sectors on how the project can be expanded.

Said Professor Everatt: “If we can show that there’s excess power, then we have a good argument to have with all city councils; to say that these are not your clients, you cannot tell us you’re losing revenue, which is their current argument. That everyone is leaving the grid and where are they going to get their revenue from… We’re saying that’s an irrelevant argument for people who don’t have power.” DM/OBP

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South Africa

Project origins

Sponsoring a pilot

Safety hazards

Powering phones too