Long queues of vehicles at traffic lights knocked out by power cuts may soon be a thing of the past.
”All traffic lights and public lights will be converted to solar power, with battery back-up,” Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said in Pretoria on Friday.
Briefing the media on a host of emergency measures aimed at finding fast solutions to South Africa’s electricity crisis, she said the cost of the conversion would be about R400-million.
The project was an opportunity for job creation and skills development, she said.
Sonjica did not say when the project was expected to start or finish.
Meanwhile, the manufacture of energy-wasting light bulbs would be restricted in an effort to reduce demand by 750MW by 2010, Sonjica said.
If eight ordinary light bulbs were replaced with fluorescent lights in South Africa’s 10-million electrified households, 800MW could be saved, she told a media briefing in Pretoria.
The programme would also allow poor households to exchange their ordinary light bulbs for fluorescent lights for free until 2015.
”In order to ensure that this roll-out is sustained, we intend to issue a restriction on the manufacturing of incandescent light bulbs.”
Certain exclusions would be granted for oven lamps, microwaves, for ”sensitive buildings” and special cases. — Sapa