Free Ground Data: Southern Africa

In 2014, a solar mapping project was funded by GIZ and executed by Stellenbosch University, Solargis and GeoSUN Africa. Six solar-meteorological measurement stations were installed. Data from the six as well as eight additional stations was used for updated maps for South Africa.

USAid funded four additional stations of which two are located in Namibia and Botswana. The SAURAN website has been created to host the data from all the stations. Thanks to on-going financial support of GIZ, Eskom, SANEDI and other entities, the stations and website are maintained.

A network of 12 highly accurate solar stations were also installed by SAWS. SAWS provides data for commercial use at a fee and free of charge for research purposes.