The City of Cape Town, together with InWent (commissioned by the German Federal Government) and OneWorld was contracted to conduct a market analysis of the Solar Water Hearting (SWH) industry in the Western Cape. OneWorld will design, develop and implement the market study for the Cape Town SWH market analysis with a view to taking the key lessons learnt and replicating/implementing these elsewhere.

SWH have applications in low to mid to high income housing groups and in grid connected and off grid areas. The systems are an attractive option in terms of energy efficiency and should have appeal to all income levels in South Africa.

Six business projects were selected from a short list for implementation in South Africa: three in the Eastern Cape, two in the Western Cape and one in KwaZulu-Natal. Of these businesses, four will use solar power (two for heating water; one for drying fruit; and one for running irrigation pumps). The fourth enterprise will convert methane into electricity using an anaerobic digester, and the sixth is a biomass green energy plant. The work further entailed opportunity assessment, promotion of renewable energy, feasibility and market studies, assessment of climate change impacts and benefits, community awareness and project communications, and capacity building.

• The work of OneWorld encompassed:
• Establishing a SWH working group for region with key stakeholder inclusion
• Devising and implementing a communications strategy and plan for public awareness and education purposes
• Conducting a market survey of the installed base of SWH systems in the Western Cape to establish technical and support issues, public perception and finance issues, etc. (200 systems and owners were inspected and interviewed)
• Analysing Cape Town’s energy targets and the White Paper on Renewable Energy, in terms of what these mean in installed capacity by 2010. Assessing current manufacturing base in terms of its delivery capacity
• Analysing upstream & downstream SME opportunities; job creation projections
• Stimulating SME development in the industry and relevant communities
• Assessing appropriate finance mechanisms and devising an incentive scheme
• Designing financing schemes in conjunction with the commercial and development financial services industry
• Building capacity on renewable energy (RE) in local communities, as well as in installation and maintenance of SWH systems
• Identifying barriers to the establishment and consolidation of a sustainable SWH industry in the region, and making recommendations to overcome these.