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'Make energy saving a habit'
20/02/2008 09:23 - (SA)
Cape Town - While major cities around the world are set to switch off their lights on March 29 as part of a WWF campaign, South Africans won't be asked to do the same.
It seems a bit insensitive considering how much inconvenience the recent power outages have caused, News24 was told.
Instead the environmental organisation is asking South Africans to make power-saving part of everyday life.
"WWF South Africa is 100% committed to energy efficiency initiatives such as the global Earth Hour campaign, so rather than campaigning with WWF offices across the world on Earth Hour, we're urging South Africans to focus on developing energy efficiency as a way of life," the organisation said in a statement.
"We understand the current challenge South Africans and Africans for that matter face due to the load shedding. In South Africa, the ability to save energy as a matter of choice is no longer an option, but a necessity," said Peet du Plooy, Trade and Investment Programme Advisor for WWF-SA.
He added that energy efficiency remains the most cost-effective means to address the imbalance of our country's energy supply-demand equation.
"Solar water heaters to replace South Africa's 1.4 million electric geysers will cost about R3.50 per watt, while the cost of building South Africa's next big coal power station - which would probably be the world's biggest - is now estimated at R16.40 per watt.
"Solar water heaters in the residential sector alone can save a third of the energy this coal-powered station will provide and can be rolled out well before the five years required for building a coal power station.
"Even leaving all moral considerations aside, energy efficiency still makes economic sense. A living planet is both a moral and economic imperative," he concluded.
The first Earth Hour in 2007 saw more than 2.2 million Sydney residents and 2 100 businesses switch off their lights in an event that gained worldwide publicity.
The organisers estimated that the energy savings were the equivalent of taking 48 000 cars off the road for an hour. The success of the event has sparked a call for worldwide participation.
- News24
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