Surveying and Engineering

Bartol Hosi
SASA

Designing an alternative energy & CO2 care system from the S&E perspective
that would benefit the country’s economic standings.
Table of Contents
Rationale 3
SWOT Analysis 3
Strengths 3
Weaknesses 4
Opportunities 4
Threats 5
3 Key Areas of Research 6
1)Direct Normal Irradiation Map of South Africa 6
2) The South African Electrical Grid distribution Map 6
3) Energy Potential for Southern African offshore energy production 7
Proposals 8
1) Inserting Sand Batteries 8
2) Smart Grid System 8
3) The increased amount of wind energy 9
4) Wave Current Energy (Blue Energy) 9
5) Solar and Biofuel Hybrid Power station 10
Citations 12
Rationale
Recent events regarding global warming and increasing levels of oceans have sparked new concerns,
therefore SASA (Sustainability Association of South Africa), a private consultancy firm focusing on solving
carbon emissions through an ethical and economical ways that would have long term benefits to the country.
Each project uses "Start-up" money from a charitable foundation that funds sustainable development projects
in the developing world. The "William Doors Foundation" is backing us to create small-scale alternative
energy system in South Africa. I will be focusing on the surveying and engineering aspect where the focus
will be on understanding the environment of South Africa in 2023 through looking at maps and charts, in
order to further support the development and proposals. The geological structure of South Africa could be
very beneficial to South Africa, by utilizeing the Proposals will be driven from logic and data gathered from
reliable sources.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths
One of the biggest strengths of South Africa is the increasing amount of land with little residents and
with many flat surfaces, hence there is a project (the Red-stone Solar plant) which is a concentrated solar
plant located in the North-western parts of the country, which have a much lower amount of residents and
include biomes with a heigh amount of hourly sunlight, such as desserts and savanna grasslands. This allows
the country to produce much more energy to be supplied to the countries electrical grid.
There is a heigh amount of solar power potential which could be extracted from the country due to its
hot weather and direct sunlight gathered. Hence the solar power potential in the country is very heigh with
most of the countries ecosystems allowing these actions.
These biomes such as desserts and grasslands contain heigh amounts of good isolating materials such
as sand. Sand being a great isolator could keep the heat within itself for a long amount of time, if isolated
correctly from the outside. This could prove to be useful in South Africa as much energy is lost in the process
of storing the energy.
With the country being on the coastline, the wind speeds in the country are executed well, with the
country producing around 55 Thousand TJ is created through green energy sources. This is mainly reaches
through wind power. The country separates the turbines into onshore and of shore. With the increasing
number of offshore turbines being build. This is increasingly more popular as it is less hated by the
populations and is generally more approved. This is mainly possible due to the consistent weather in south
Africa, where the highest rainfall happens during November to March, this allows the wind turbines to work
and produce energy more then 2 thirds of a the year. Furthermore a survey research conducted by the South
African Wind Energy Association gathered data which showed that 76% of people approve of the concept of
the construction of wind turbines in South Africa.
The residents of South Africa are mostly located near the seashore or in the North-East parts of the
country, which provides the land in the central parts of South Africa to be usable for the big projects such as
energy plants. With the energy consumption of the yearly average per capital being 3,487 kWh, meaning that
the consumption is not that big of an issue as the projected number of residents is only going to go up a bit
before falling down, meaning that the energy consumption will be much less necessary to the country in this
state.
The projects invested by the government, such as the REIPPPP Renewable Energy Independent Power
Producer Procurement Program which insures the rapid development of renewable energy in the country.
The country utilize an energy labeling system similar to the one with the EU system, which has proven
to be very efficient and allows the consumers to know the amount of energy that appliances use. This helps
to provoke the amount of energy produced by households as most of the time consumers will go for a more
clean energy option which could save them energy.

Weaknesses
One of the main weaknesses of the South Africa include the Energy Grid Code which is severely
lacking in the country, as satiated by the Department of Energy, which states that the necessary upgrades to
this Energy Grid Code could cost around 8.7 billion ZAR (around 579 million US dollars). But the energy
grid code is not the only thing, the Energy Grid itself is also severely lacking, with in not being a smart grid a
lot of energy is lost, which results in the lack of usable energy provided to the residents.
Another weakness in the country is the lack of elevation, as most of the biomes include lowland
savanna or tropical forests, which none of are at heigh elevation, limiting the country in the development of
hydro power plants, furthermore there is a period in the country when the rain fall is minimal, through the
months June to August. This could also limit the amount of energy that could be produced by the hydro
power-plants.
The government also plays a huge role, with the residents loosing trust in the government and the lack
of consistency of the government, many individuals believe that the rules that might be set as to achieve
clean energy, may not implemented well and later on just scratched as a impossible option. Further belief of
corrupt government could loose the support of the masses if the big projects are not fully transparent to the
public, further ruining the relationship between the government and the residents.
Building renewable energy sources requires a huge amount of money, and as a result, developing
countries such as South Africa have a hard time funding these projects, later ending in them borrowing
money from the world bank or other allay countries. Such examples include the Red-stone Project which was
founded by the neighboring countries. This could pose as a weakness to the chances of the country
constructing renewable energy power plants.

Opportunities
With the long coastline, South Africa has a high potential in gathering marine energy (blue energy),
with the increasing development in this area, the technology available to the country to attract these massive
waves could possibly solve the energy problem. With the wave energy in South Africa being 25 to 50 MW
per wave. With the extraction of this energy, the country could become a major exploiter of energy to the
neighboring countries. Waves on the South-West coast of the country having the strongest waves with the
most energy accessible.
On the coast where the waves are strong, the wind thence to be very powerful, which would make it
possible for extraction through wind turbines. These wind turbines could produce a heigh amount of energy
which could support the energy need in the country for the smaller towns on the West of the country.
 Marine energy is not the only beneficial energy source, as the central parts of South Africa have a
massive amount of sunlight. This could be useful for solar energy farms which could have biofuel bellow
them. This power station would double up as both a solar and a biofuel power station, hoping to utilize the
most of the land as possible, considering that the country is not one of the biggest. The grasses that are
planned to be planted bellow the solar panels include Perennial grasses, as they tend to be the most
environmentally friendly while also being useful to the creation of energy through biofuel.
An opportunity for the countries electrical grid would be a smart grid, which could help to better adapt
to different spending habits throughout the day. It could help to prevent the energy loss from the original grid
and better adapt to the frequent changes of energy usage. It could also be useful to better understand and
estimate the spending of a household.

Threats
One of the biggest threat is the lack of financial support, with most of the green energy sources being
very expensive. For a country that is still in its developing state, the expensive ways of generating renewable
energy tent to be less attractive, therefore the South Africa relies on the energy produced by coal power
stations. This dependency on one energy source could be harder to break and move onto another renewable
source. Most developing countries only use renewable sources as backup and not as the main source, with
the main source still being fossils fuels. A way around this would be to change the coal power plants and
repurpose them into power plants that utilize natural gasses such as oil. This could help to reduce the CO2
emissions from the country.
The lack of employment in South Africa could create a loss in the interests of building and investing
into these projects. With no one who can build it, and later on no one who can use it, the green energy
stations would not be very efficient, and most of the time they would be useless. However with the building
of new stations, the amount of jobs is also increased, which could result in the increasing interest to certain
workers or donors.
The intermittency of renewable sources such as wind or solar could create an unstable supply of
energy to the country, which later on would result in the country not being able to create enough energy to
satisfy the demand. This is most noticeable during the colder months, as the amount of solar energy gathered
by solar panels is drastically lower, and the amount of wind energy is increased. Therefore energy plants such
as marine energy is more reliable as it works all year around, and presents a possibly stable energy. Other
include natural gasses which only decrease the CO2 emissions without fully preventing them.
3 Key Areas of Research
1)Direct Normal Irradiation Map of South Africa

From the map on the right, it is clear where most of

the direct sunlight is located in South Africa, this would
mostly include the North-West parts of the the country. In
these parts, the biomes range from deserts to savanna’s,
which are usually biomes formed by hot and dry weather.
Hence the areas marked with the red would not be suited for
renewable energy sources such as Hydroelectric power
stations as a lot of energy would be lost from the
evaporation of water from water reserves which are used for
the process. Similarly the amount of Irradiation on the
coastline of the country could work in favor of the
Hydroelectric power stations.
The heat in the central one would however be useful
for the installation of solar power stations, these could include concentrated solar or regular solar power
stations. That is why the Red-stone Concentrated solar station is being constructed in these areas of the
country, which is projected to be finished and put into power by 2030. The problem with the construction of
solar power stations in these areas is that these areas are more rural with a limiting access to the power grid.
This could pose a problem as the instigation of a power grid could cost a lot of money, however this could be
an excellent chance as there are proposals regarding the upgrade of the electrical power grid in the country,
turning it into a smart grid.

2) The South African Electrical Grid distribution Map

On the left there is a electricity Grid Map which shows

the distribution of electricity in South Africa. As mentioned
before, it is obvious how the most complex part is around the
industrial area in the country, which is on the North-East Parts of
the country. In the industrial area there are a lot more citizens
and there is a higher population density, which acquires the need
of a more tangled web. It is also clear how there is a center
“spine” of the electrical grid which moves the power from the South-West to the North-East. The areas with
the least connection to the grid are the places on the North-West parts, which is the area where most energy
sources come from, these then more the electricity to the areas of a higher desire. One thing to note is that the
electrical grid is not a Smart Grid, which could greatly decrease the amount of energy loss and help to
disperse the energy in a more beneficial way.
It is to be noticed that most of the grid lines of 220 voltage reach the coast, which could be beneficial
in case of marine energy (Blue Energy). This would mean that in case of a development in the coastline for
energy exploitation, there would be no necessary change to the electricity grid to be able to support this.
These blue energy sources could prove to be very useful and potentially allow South Africa to adapt a more
green energy creation.

3) Energy Potential for Southern African

offshore energy production

From the Photo on the right, it shows the

possible offshore energy extractions in Africa,
however it is more important to focus onto the
parts in South Africa, which is the bottom of the
map. It sows how the possible energy sources that
could be looked into and should possibly be
developed more. These include offshore wind
power in the central parts of the South African
coastline, on the right of those, it states how ocean current energy could be extracted, as represented by the
symbol. On the other side it shows how wave energy could and should be extracted. Through the data
provided, we are able to know which areas to focus on and what to investigate more. Furthermore this could
prove to be a useful energy source
The fastest and most consistent nearshore water speeds are supplying the country and possibly
found in Somalia, at southern (Kismayo to Mogadishu) and
northern (Puntland) locations, and in south-eastern South reducing the CO2 footprint of the country.
Africa. These areas seem to have a high technical potential Through the quote from the essay
for ocean current power.
featuring the image above, it determines
that the potential of ocean current power as
mentioned before. It is also known that these areas have a good connection to the countries electrical grid as
a result of the research done previously. Hence it might be a good idea to implement a ocean current
electricity generators, as they could possibly be suited for the environment around South Africa.
Proposals

1) Inserting Sand Batteries

One of the biggest problems with clean energy is the level
of energy they produce and inconsistency. By creating these “Sand
Batteries”, they could help to solve this problem by helping to heat
up the water for households when necessary, or just heating up a
house. The way these would work is that the electricity produced
by clean energy sources heats up the sand in the container with a
good isolation, the sand can then be heated to 500C, storing this
heat for months. This could help to increase the stability in the
country. This would work in a principle where only some of the energy would go through this process while
the rest of the energy would be used towards other areas.

1.1) Why in South Africa and where?

One of the main reasons why this would be helpful and useful in South Africa is because of the
biomes that surround it, which contain heigh amounts of sand which could be processed to be useful in these
batteries. But as to where in the country I would suggest it in the West parts of the country, because these
parts of the country are more spaced out and away from the grid, which could effect the consistency of
energy that they have, by creating a sand batteries near the houses, then it would be able to insure that all of
the households have access to warm water and to heating during the winter months.

1.2) How many of these “Sand Batteries” would be constructed?

Before committing to a full on project, it would be better to test them out to make sure that these
were actually doable and would have a positive effect on the households. It could also be tested to make sure
that these abilities were actually used to its maximum potential. Hence I would propose the construction of
10 of these batteries in the area, which could be connected to a few of the households. These households
would be volunteers which could help to test out the reliability and usefulness of these batteries.

2) Smart Grid System

The energy grid in South Africa is currently very weak and unstable, which could cause a huge
amount of energy loss through the transmission of energy from one end of the country to the other.
Furthermore in 2022 there was a noticeable collapse in the amount of energy being generated. All of this
could be solved with a Smart Grid system, many many tries already have something like this implemented,
these countries include China and the EU. In both of these examples, through implementing a smart grid
system, around 10% less energy was lost in the process of moving the energy. Therefore I believe that this
could help with the amount of energy that is lost in South Africa’s current electrical grid system.

2.1) Why Now and how would this help?

 If there are any plants of constructing new green energy power plants, it would be horrible if the
energy to be lost. As currently there is a construction of a concentrated solar power plant (the red stone
project), but with this creation still many of this green energy will be lost during the transmission. Therefore
now before these projects are brought into action, it would be better to fix up the cores of these constructions,
which would include the fixing of South African power grid. Smart Power grids could help the controls the
amount of energy that is given to certain areas, and better adapt as the requirements for energy change.

3) The increased amount of wind energy

As the wind speeds in South Africa tend to be the perfect speed for a wind turbine to work
efficiently, therefore I propose the construction of offshore with turbines which would be able to generate
enough energy to support some of the residents of South Africa which live on the coastline. By mainly
supplying this energy to people on the coastline, we would be able to minimize the energy loss through the
transport of energy. It was projected that this could generate around 2,200,000,000 Joules, also resulting in a
860282 metric tones of CO2 emissions from other fossils fuel power stations.
These turbines would be around 83 meters, and I would propose the construction of 50 of these
placed alongside the coast of South Africa, mainly located on the Southern point. As that is the area with the
highest amounts of possible extra table wind energy.

4) Wave Current Energy (Blue Energy)

With South Africa having a extensive coastline, it would be great to utilize the potential energy that
is stored in the currents and the waves. This could be done in various ways that could help to generate
enough energy. If used correctly and extracted to it highest potential energy that could be gathered trough
waves would be able to reach 56,800,000 Joules of energy and would be able to extract/decrease 425,303
metric tones of CO2 emissions from South Africa. Whatever type this would be it would be located on the
South-Western parts of the country, as there are the most steady and strong waves on that side of the coast,
meaning maximum extraction.

4.1) Oyster Wave energy

This machine utilizes the waves to pump pressure

into a pipe which then helps to generate the energy. There
is however one problem with these, and that is that these
are only located in Finland for now and tend to be very
expensive. However with the improvement of
technology, the Oyster 2.0 is expected to make its
appearance soon. You might be thinking how these blue
energy sources would be hard too take care of, but that’s
why the Oyster Energy generator is very good, since all
of the technical parts of the machine are located onshore, allowing for quick and easy access in case of a
breakdown. The biggest problem however would be the costs.

4.2) Big Ocean Turbines

These turbines would be conceited to an anchor and

dropped to the ocean, these are however located in deeper water
and tend to be more complicated for fixing however it is able to
surface immediately for fixing. Similarly to the pervious example,
there is a problem where these energy sources are very expensive,
as they have not been developed fully and therefore tend to be
more of an experiment. But I believe that the environment of the
shores in South Africa could be beneficial to test these new ideas
out. The way this machine works would be that the ocean currents turn the turbine, which then generates
energy, which is then sent over to the surface to be used accordingly.

5) Solar and Biofuel Hybrid Power station

As mentioned before (in the 3 key areas of research), there is a lot of direct sunlight in South Africa,
this would mainly apply to the continent part, (North-West), and we believe (Surveying and Engineering +
Research and Development) that a power station that could utilize both on the same patch of land would be
highly useful and could provide a lot of energy to the countries electrical grid. It is estimated that it could
produce 1,360,000,000 Joules and could help to reduce around 332,421 metic tones of CO2 emissions from
fossils fuels, and this is data from solar panels alone.

5.1) Solar Power

It was in plan to create 0.5 square kilometer solar farm, which could operate 1/4 of a day during winter
seasons and 1/2 of a day during summer seasons. We believe that this is the best option to South Africa as the
country itself has a huge amounts of sunlight which could be used to generate energy. Even though solar
panels loose a huge amount of energy during the process, they are easy to install and could be used easily
with something else. It is estimated that by these panels alone there could be 1,360,000,000 Joules of energy
saved and much of Carbon Dioxide removed from the atmosphere. I would suggest the use of
monocrystalline panels, as they are best suited for the this environment. I would propose the instigation of
one quart kilometer of area to be constructed on, this would allow the highest amounts of energy output,
while also staying in the budget range.

5.2) Biofuel
 Bellow these solar panels, it would be a great option to plant “Perennial grasses” which would be the
best suited for the environment around them, which would be a savanna biome, where these grasses would
thrive. These would then be able to be dried and used to generate energy through biofuel there is an estimate
of a possible creation of 162,064,800,000 Joules of energy produced, this could several help with the lack of
energy in South Africa. Although the actual grass fields would extend to 1 square kilometer, meaning that
only a part of it will overlap with the solar panels, this could help to increase the amount of biofuel created,
as 0.5 square kilometer will not be enough to generate enough energy from biofuel.
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