German solar technology company DegerEnergie on Friday said that it was contemplating entering the South African market, owing to country’s energy policies increasingly being geared towards renewable energy solutions.

DegerEnergie international sales manager Katja Widmaier told Engineering News Online that the company considered South Africa an up-and-coming market, and would also look to use it as a springboard into other sub-Saharan African markets.

Both local and international investors are anxiously awaiting clarity on the South African government’s policy position on renewable energy feed-in tariffs (Refit).

In recent months the government had created uncertainty around the use of a Refit, which was promulgated in 2009, after it started speaking about rather using a price-linked bidding process to procure renewable energy.

A decision is expected within days.

But, Widmaier said that DegerEnergie did not need a Refit to competitively produce energy in the South African market.

Further, she said that DegerEnergie would consider opening up a production line in South Africa if there was sufficient interest in its systems. “We have set up production lines in a number of country’s outside Germany, and will certainly consider this option in South Africa as well.”

DegerEnergie patented the Maximum Light Detection (MLD) tracker technology and is currently the largest manufacturer of single and dual-axis solar tracking systems.

MLD tracking systems align the connected solar modules to the brightest, most energetic point in the sky. In this way, reflected light or diffuse light that penetrates clouds is also taken into account.

On average, this delivers about 45% higher yields than fixed systems, and Widmaier envisaged that yields would be even greater with South Africa’s weather conditions.

It also delivers between 6% and 18% higher yields than astronomical tracking systems that also align modules according to the sun’s position, but do not take account of weather conditions or other parameters relevant to energy yields.

“With our systems you need less modules and less converters to produce the same amount of energy than fixed systems or even astronomical tracking systems, which consequently leads to significant cost savings,” explained Widmaier.

A cost/benefit analyses showed that, on average, the installation of MLD tracking systems would see an investor save about 25% compared to fixed photovoltaic solar systems.