The Department of Energy (DoE) installed over 281 000 solar water heaters (SWH) by the end of March, exceeding its target of 250 041 installations in the 2011/12 financial year, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters reported on Monday.

Of the installed systems, 138 095 low-pressure units were targeted at the low-income market and 27 950 high-pressure units were rebated for the middle- to high-income market.

Peters said in the case of the rebate programme, installations and the geographical distribution thereof were based on actual uptake of consumers requesting SWH rebates and areas targeted by accredited installers.

The distribution of the rebated systems across provinces varied from 43 451 in Gauteng to 1 717 in Limpopo.

In the case of the contracts placed in municipalities, 1 329 SWH systems were installed in Naledi, in the Free State, 4 973 in Sol Plaatje, in the Northern Cape, and 15 094 in Tshwane, in Gauteng.                      

Peters said the funding for the rebate programme was raised through the electricity tariff in accordance with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa decision on electricity price increases taken in 2010.

Funding for the contractual roll-out is received from the Division of Revenue Act and disbursed to national power provider Eskom for implementation.

Rebates for low-pressure SWHs ranged from R3 282 to R4 233 and rebates for high-pressure systems ranged from R3 936 to R8 964, including value added tax.

The total cost for the SWH programme for the 2011/12 financial year was R766-million, which is sourced from the rebate and the fiscus programme.