Energy efficiency in low income housing: Can we do it? Can we afford it? Can we afford not to?

REGISTRATION: Please click here to register online (free-of-charge)

Refreshments and snacks will be served before and after the lecture, and there is ample opportunity for networking with friends, colleagues and energy professionals.

Come and join the energy professionals at SANEA for an evening of provocation and challenge, to learn more about energy options for South Africa, debate the issues, and get some answers!

SYNOPSIS

The problem: South Africa has built about 2,4-million low-income homes in the past 15 years. The target for the next 15 years is a further 3-million housing units. With the focus on overcoming our acute housing shortage, these RDP or BNG homes are built to very basic specifications with little or no consideration being given to thermal comfort or efficiency. The result is very poor living conditions for the occupants and disproportionately high levels of energy consumption.

The impact: The impact of this scenario is to exacerbate the cycle of poverty, not only in terms of basic monthly expenditure but also on the "burden of life". Typically the occupants of these homes, suffer a disproportionate health burden, including the often over-looked area of mental health, with the resultant high levels of apathy, inertia and vulnerability.

Can we do it? (thermal and energy efficiency in RDP housing): The Kuyasa CDM project not only sets out to illustrate the dramatic socio-economic impact of the selected energy efficiency adaptations, but also to develop a sustainable model for ongoing maintenance of these interventions. The modelling includes local job-creation, skills development and promotes local industrial development by generating an ongoing demand for locally produced product in a completely new market segment.

Can we afford to do it?: The key determinant in addressing the quality of low-income housing is finance. The financial modelling for large scale roll out combines DSM subsidies, a 'pay for service' model, and Carbon Finance.

Can we afford not to?: At a more macro level, the project seeks to address the need for increased electricity generation capacity - it is estimated that by targeting energy efficiency for the proposed BNG housing, South Africa will benefit from the avoided costs of a new power station (upwards of R95 billion). The Kuyasa project is at the forefront of addressing two of the most pressing social and political imperatives facing us - creating sustainable human settlements and addressing climate change.

BRIEF CV OF PRESENTER

Carl Carl Wesselink has a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Cape Town. He is an attorney admitted to practise in the High Court of South Africa. He has worked in the human rights and good governance development sector since 1992, initially for an NGO as a project director in a rural access to justice programme, and since 1997 as a consultant in Southern and Eastern Africa, where his clients have included the European Union, the United Nations Development Programme and several member States. In 2008 he joined the South African Export Development Fund to help establish it's sustainable energy division. He has helped pioneer a sustainable, community-based energy services model for the mass roll-out of solar and other energy efficient interventions in low-income housing. He is currently the manager responsible for the implementation of the Kuyasa CDM project. He is engaged as part of a team on the piloting of different energy technologies, with a view to including (and financing) these as part of new large-scale subsidised housing developments. Through his work on the Kuyasa project, the first of its kind and scale in South Africa, Carl has developed a thorough understanding of the renewable energy market, the available technology and its practical application in South African conditions.

RSVP AND FURTHER INFORMATION

For catering purposes, please click here for the online form to register soonest today if possible. For further information, please contact Virosha at the SANEA Secretariate, Email: sanea@turnergroup.co.za; Tel: (031) 368-8000; Fax 031 368-6623, or visit the SANEA website at www.sanea.org.za.

DIRECTIONS AND PARKING

Please click here for a map and directions. Parking will be available in the staff basement parking. Please supply your vehicle registration number when you register online.