Being Green - 25 August 2017

Those of us lucky enough to have electricity in our homes probably still have strong memories of the winter of 2015 when the country experienced regular load-shedding. Rushing home to fill a few flasks with hot water, children trying to get schoolwork done by candlelight, or figuring out at which local take-away you might still be able to buy some warm dinner. But for many, life without electricity is a daily reality. Those living in informal settlements can wait up to 10 years before they get access to an electrical connection. In this edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Damian Conway, director of the Sustainability Institute Innovation Lab. It runs a project called iShack which provides individual solar energy to over 1,300 households in the township of Enkanini near Stellenbosch.