South Africa's first ever crowd-funded solar plant at the Stellenbosch Waldorf School has now been operating for over four months. So has the solar output met our estimates? The simple answer is yes. The longer answer is yes and it is has exceeded our expectations by 12%, which means the backers of that solar project are receiving 12% more solar powered income. The reason why this is the case is that we use a very conservative method for forecasting solar energy production. We work on a basis that the probability of exceeding our estimate is more likely than falling short. So how has the school benefited? During the day-time the school is 100% powered by the sun. Classrooms, kitchens, offices, wood work rooms. You name it, it is driven entirely from photons from the sun. Overall, around 50% of all their electrical consumption is met my the solar energy plant.

You can check out the live solar data from this project yourself. Simply visit this page.