Wherever I go nowadays, I am amazed at how South Africans are adapting to the situation of not getting enough electricity from ESKOM. Whether it is visiting family or friends, the MAKRO, hospitals or shopping malls: everywhere I see people putting up solar panels to beat the electricity shortage. I was amazed the other day when I visited the Kolonade shopping mall here in Montana, in Tshwane. I made a few pictures:

Ja. Ja. ‘n Boer maak ‘n plan! I could not even count the number of solar panels that I observed here. It covers the whole area that used to be the uncovered parking area to the south of the mall. I was also glad to be able to park my car directly underneath, as the panels actually do have the secondary function of providing shade for parked  vehicles. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the parking on the south side will continue to be free of charge – as it always has been – and I am sure that all those panels do provide enough electricity for the whole centre during the working  hours.  

Yes! We are blessed here in South Africa, especially Pretoria and Johannesburg, with a lot of sunshine and therefore this is definitely going to work for all of  us. Just one word of caution. We also have a lot of dust here, especially during the dry winter times. That means that the panels may need to be cleaned at regular intervals. No problem with that. But you have to be careful. I already know of one friend and dear fellow brother in Christ who had an unfortunate accident while trying to get down from the roof after cleaning the panels. Please ensure you take or create all the necessary safety precautions when trying to clean the panels.

Note that if you want to convert your home to be completely – or almost completely – independent of ESKOM power, you will have to convert your cooking to gas. We recently bought a gas stove & oven in addition to all our electrical cooking. It perfectly works for us when the power is down. Again a word of caution: remember that according to regulations (e.g. insurance) you are not allowed to have a cylinder of more than 9kg of LPG gas inside your house. Otherwise you need to drill a hole through the wall and put the gas cylinder outside.

I am sure we can indeed identify with one of the beneficiaries of Heart for Children, namely the Rehoboth children’s village near Murchison in KZN, who reported that with stage 6 load shedding they have no electricity for 13 hours a day. We would like to help them converting their office, school and, as far as possible, all the children’s homes onto solar and gas. Will you help us? We have a challenge going on with our parent company and this means that your contribution will be doubled up by Hart voor Kinderen in the Netherlands. Please click on the link below.

Summer Newsletter: Special Appeal | Bread on the water