Yesterday Google announced they are investing $12million (about R103 million) in a solar project in the Northern Cape, South Africa.
In their blog about the investment, Google said South Africa was an obvious place for renewable energy investments. We have some of the best solar potential in the world and, Google said, an investment here would hopefully have a great “transformative potential” – that it’d kick-start more renewable energy projects in South Africa.
Putting up the money for solar projects on their own, Google seems to think our renewable energy uptake isn’t progressing fast enough – and we agree!
It’s clear that South Africa can become a world leader in renewable energy if the government puts in place enabling legislation to allow for more of it. Doing so would create thousands of new jobs in manufacturing, maintenance, and engineering sectors – and often in underdeveloped areas, like the Northern Cape, where job creation has been slow in the past.
This week we went solar at our offices here in Johannesburg – switching over to the good old South African sun. We also wanted to show that solar power is viable, reliable, and ready to go right now!
Renewable energy would not only revolutionise energy production in our beautiful country, but also result in socio-economic transformation, more jobs, and increase access to electricity (while bringing the world closer to a clean energy future).
Renewable energy is a no-brainer -- a now Google has confirmed it!
ACT: Send this tweet to President Zuma, calling on him to increase our Renewable Energy commitments.