"We know that Eskom's current generating capacity is not able to cope with current demand," says Dr. Dino Petrarolo, Managing Director of Kayema, a leading local renewable energy services provider. "The installation of the SWH initiative is expected to save approximately 650MW of electrical demand in a shorter space of time than building new power plants and will be more cost effective."

It is estimated the minimum market potential for SWH is 5 million households, so the opportunity is real, but figures reported by Eskom's weekly report on 5 April 5 2011, show less than 100 thousand systems have been installed in about 3 years. "At this rate it will take over 60 years to reach the goal of 1 million systems," says Dr. Petrarolo.

It's estimated that 400 thousand electrical geysers are installed every year, this leaves government's goal in the lurch because the market itself is not supporting sustainable energy objectives.
 
Dr. Petrarolo believes this can be addressed through:

• New building: legislation and standards requiring the installation for SWH and/or Heat Pumps has been drafted and discussed for the past two years.
  However, we need the Department of Trade and Industry to sanction standards and secure legislation that will backup this initiative and boost implementation from 1000 units per month to 22 000 on a national level, so the 2014 goal can be achieved.
• Support from the insurance industry: Insurance companies can back this project and offer benefits to clients who opt for SWH or other renewable energy systems. They have the power to change the status quo through forward thinking leadership.
• Residential and commercial users consuming more than 350kWh per month: All households/ business that exceed 350kWh per month should be given 24 months to convert their geysers to a SWH or some other energy saving system.
  Failure to do so should result in some consequence, it's not fair millions of people in this country do not have electricity and others waste it.

Dr. Petrarolo says, "We believe we have the required human capital to achieve our goal of 1 million systems by 2014. Since 2008, hundreds of installers have been trained to install solar systems and at Kayema alone we are providing services to our clients on a daily basis.

"Installers from the plumbing industry are telling us that they have huge spare capacity due to the current economic slowdown. If it weren't for solar they would have no work, so there are thousands of plumbers ready to step up to meet demand for SWH systems."