“Technological challenges influencing the implementation of green energy in the SME sector in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN)”

Electricity is an essential basic need that the South African government needs to pay special attention. A continuous or uninterrupted supply of electricity is essential for industrial production and economic growth and development. Since South Africa is overly reliant on coal fired electricity generating technologies which are environmentally damaging, the move towards green energy technologies to form part of the electricity generating matrix is highly desirable not only to reduce environmental pollution, but also to increase the supply of electricity to meet rising demand. However, the adoption and implementation of green energy projects has not been that easy and progress has been far from satisfactory. This study was therefore consummated to assess the effectiveness of installed green technology in the area of Pinetown in Kwazulu-Natal. The study also investigated the technological challenges affecting the implementation of green energy projects in SME sector in Pinetown Kwazulu-Natal. Furthermore, the study also examined as to what extent technological challenges are affecting the use of installed green technology in the selected area of Pinetown in Kwazulu-Natal. This was followed by exploring strategies that could be implemented to improve effectiveness of installed green technology in Pinetown. A quantitative research approach was adopted. Data collection for this study was performed by distributing and collecting a structured survey questionnaire to respondents. Data analysis for this research was performed using SPSS.

Introduction 31    Since the later part of 2007 South Africa has experienced electricity blackouts and Eskom officially launched load shedding in January 2008.According to Chris Yelland (2014), an energy expert, controlled blackout (load shedding) in South Africa has had a negative effect on the economy.He has estimated that stage 1 load shedding for 10 hours a day for 20 days a month has resulted in losses of R20 billion per month to the economy.Using the same parameters, stage 2 load shedding would result in a R40 billion loss and stage 3 load shedding would result in an R80 billion loss per month.These costs, according to Yellend, to the productive economy are based on a cost of unserved energy of R100 per KWh.The problem emanated from the fact that South Africa has been over-reliant on coal-fired electricity generating technologies which are by an large contributing not only to electricity shortages due to limited supply, but also to environmental ground and air pollution.Yet the new world thrust is moving towards the adoption and implementation of green energy projects to serve two purposes.The first purpose is to augment electricity This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license, which permits re-use, distribution, and reproduction, provided the materials aren't used for commercial purposes and the original work is properly cited.
supplies and reduce load shedding and the second purpose to reduce environmental pollution.
A reliance on abundant, reliable and low-priced electricity has been a critical success factor in the business sector in South Africa.The business has in the past enjoyed one of the lowest electricity tariffs in the world (Von Ketelhodt, & Wocke, 2008).The significance of this study would be to examine how much of a challenge it would be to implement green technology so as to mitigate the effects of load shedding in SME's and the challenges associated with the implementation green energy technology in the Pinetown area of KZN.It was predicted in Journal or Energy in Southern Africa, Volume 19, No 1 (2008) that the demand for electricity in South Africa was likely to outstrip demand and the hardest hit would be entrepreneurs and small businesses.
The predicament that South Africa found its self in was a combination of factors which are listed below (but not limited to the list below) ( 2015).There have been several notable events in the recent past that have posed a serious threat to the country's electricity supply, amongst the more notable ones were in November 2014, when a coal silo collapsed at Majuba power station and a crack was found on another silo.Majuba supplies about 10% of the country's electricity at 4116 MW and due to the collapse the plant had to be shut down (Tripped coal stations add to load shedding burden, 2014).On Thursday 4 th November 2014 Eskom lost about 4000 MW this was due to planned and unplanned maintenance.On the 20 th November 2014 the Majuba power station shut down again as another crack was discovered on a different coal silo.There are some advantages of developing small scale renewable energy projects that may be used to supply SMEs with electrical power.They do not require expensive upgrades of the grid or cause grid voltage overloads and, in some cases, they can be used as independent or standalone energy sources that are detached from traditional energy supply routes (Dragoman, 2014).In addition, Dragoman (2014) posits that small scale renewable energy projects that are independent from a centralized energetic system provide members of the project (SMEs) with freedom to pursue their best interests that fit their locality.Furthermore, Balcombe, Rigby, and Azapagic (2013) espouse that adopting renewable energy technology that facilitate the implementation of small scale renewable energy projects improves management of local energy demands.However, a major challenge associated with some small scale renewable energy projects is that it is difficult to install and maintain the installations especially where a group of SME's is sharing the facility.In this regard, EIA (2012) observes that too much maintenance requirements, difficulties in installing the technology and failure to add value to some SME's' businesses constitute considerable barriers towards adopting renewable energy technology.In addition, Smith, Fressoli, and Thomas (2012) note that an additional challenge of deploying renewable technology is the lack of trained personnel or readily available human capital.(2015) estimates that an expansion of installed wind power of 20% per annum from the year 2002 to 2020 will convert to 1,200 Giga Watts of wind power electricity in the world representing 18% of the total electricity supply, hopes of realizing such a significant benefit through the usage of wind power energy by SME's are uncertain due to the limited production capacity for wind turbines and the prohibitive cost of installation.
1.4.Solar energy technological challenges.Solar energy which produces electricity using the sun's rays and semiconductor chips requires power storage devices that are extremely exorbitant for the SMEs to have access to electrical power during the night (Burr, 2015).Additionally, in the views of Birgisson and Petersen (2016), solar panel technology is still extremely uneconomical at changing solar energy into considerable amounts of useable electricity, regardless of the fact that its installation can be decentralized to individual household units.Boyle (2014) indicates that a study by the New Jersey Board of Utilities reveals that installation costs of a 10kw capacity system in a home was $77,500 and that the payback period for the initial investment based on current electricity prices was estimated at 50 years.the cost of using this technology in generating electricity is estimated to be three times higher than that of coal generation such that, given the opportunity to choose a source of energy, most SME's would prefer the cheaper coal generation alternative.According to Geller (2013) who indicates that this technology is used to generate only 6% of the electricity generated by solar energy and used in Asian countries, there is a need for the provision of subsidies in the development of the new technology until production costs are comparable with prices of energy produced using traditional methods and affordable to SMEs.Technological challenges of solar energy sources are compounded by a notable increase in the price of silicon input materials that exacerbates the affordability challenges being faced in the usage of solar panels by SMEs.Production of solar panels requires more silicon than that required in the computer chip industry causing disparities between the demand and supply of silicon and upward fluctuations in its prices (Ferrey, 2016).Thus, by the time the solar panel is ready for the market, many SMEs cannot afford its price and this negatively challenges green energy consumption by the SMEs.

Biomass energy technological challenges.
Biomass produces the largest amount of electricity by burning plant or waste material, or collecting and burning landfill gas, in the United States of America when compared with the combined amount of electricity produced using wind, solar and geothermal energy sources.In this regard, Bolinger, Wiser, and Fitzgerald (2015) observe that private companies produce biomass by making use of forest materials in the production of lumber such that their plants are much smaller than fossil fuel plants.Because of the biomass plants' smaller capacity, the initial expenditure on equipment is relatively higher as compared to power output and this is stands out to be prohibitive challenge to SME's who may want to adapt this source of electricity supply (Bolinger, Wiser, & Fitzgerald, 2015).

Research methodology
This research adopted the quantitative research methodology.124 questionnaires were distributed to the target respondents for data collection.Questionnaires were made up with close ended questions which were distributed to the selected SMEs owners or managers.

Target population.
The target population for this study were 124 business owners/managers operating in the Pinetown area of Kwazulu Natal province.

Sampling.
The sampling for this study involved the selection of 124 existing employees of SMEs in the green energy sector in the Pinetown area The rationale for adopting the sampling of employees involved in the installation og green energy projects lay in the fact that the researcher was limited by time and costs as constraints that made it impossible to interview everyone.This sampling of respondents resonated with the assertions by Landerau (2010) who similarly agreed that where larger numbers of respondents exists, it is virtually impossible to interview or survey everyone.2.5.Reliability, validity and trustworthiness.The reliability of information collected was ensured by exercising extreme caution so much so that only completed questionaires from persons who indicated that they are over-indebted were included in the formulation of the findings.Furthermore, the trustworthiness of the data was ensured by targeting existing management and employees of SMEs of green energy companies in KZN Durban area in order to come up with valid conclusions as to the technological challenges facing SMEs in the green energy sector in KZN Durban area, as well as intervention strategies for minimizing the impact of the technological challenges.More so, the validity of the findings was ensured through carrying out a re-check pertaining to whether data collected from primary research were correctly transcribed and included in the findings.

Findings of the survey
As indicated in the previous section that a comprehensive literature review was conducted in order to establish problem experienced by SME in implementing green energy through the use of technology.124 owners/managers in the selected places (N=124) completed questionnaires were received and captured and, then, analyzed.Therefore, the following are the key findings revealed by the survey.

Limitations
This study did not cover all provinces in South Africa and was confined to specific area in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.The findings of this survey cannot be generalized to South Africa but rather can be used as the point of reference.Due to the complexity and dynamics of South African environment including economic conditions, as well as social attrributes, further research needs to cover big business as well.

Recommendations
The fundings of the survey suggest that technological challenges influencing the implementation of green energy in the SMEs sector in KZN.Therefore, this study recommends that introduction of the use technology by SMEs and technical support, as well as financial support should be provided by all relevant stakeholders for this sector.This research also recommend that policy makers should encourage the use the implentation of green concepts in all sectors of business and within the communities.The innovation of green zone in the SME sector should be enforced by the authorities.

Conclusion
Strong understanding of related factors affecting technological challenges influencing the implementation of green energy in the SME sector in KZN and its implcations are of prime impotrtance.This survey concluded that technology can bring and make it easy for SMEs to use green products and reduce their day-to-day operating cost significantly while realizing growth and sustainable development.It has been indentified that lack of implementation, lack of awareness of the benefit of technology in bring green products in the SMEs is the major stumping block for the growth of SMEs sector.

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Dabululwandle Memka, Lawrence Mpele Lekhanya, 2017.Dabululwandle Memka, Department of Management and Entrepreneurial Studies, Durban University of Technology, South Africa.Lawrence Mpele Lekhanya, Department of Public Management & Economics, Durban University of Technology, South Africa.

2. 3 .
Data collection tools.This research purely utilized the 5 point Likert scale questionnaire as a data collection tool.The researcher distributed questionnaires to the individual businesses premises and the respondents were given 3 days to complete the questionnaire and were later collected by the research for data cleaning and capturing.2.4.Data analysis methods.Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 24.0 was chosen to analyze the data collected.Since SPSS is compatible with Microsoft Excel, data inputted from Excel was exported into SPSS as variable names and coded responses.A distribution of responses was generated for the survey items as frequencies, means, and standard deviations were computed (Razali & Wah, 2011).
According to the Eskom website, the installed generation capacity is 44 048 MW and Eskom's total installed capacity is 44 145 MW which includes small hydro-electricity plants in the former Transkei (Generation Mix Eskom Corporate Affairs Division,  Lack of investment in new generation capacity. Decommissioning or mothballing of power stations. Population growth. Reduced investment in maintenance. Loss of skills at state power utility Eskom.

. Adoption and diffusion renewable energy.
(Balcombe, Rigby, & Azapagic, 2013)ented stage 3 load shedding after shutting down two power stations (Tripped coal stations add to load shedding burden, 2014)., helps to achieve efficient energy production and utilization, as well as protect the environment.Similarly, Chiguvare and Chiguvare (2014) view adequate electrical energy supply as a critical driver for economic growth.This implies that due to lack of adequate energy supply, most developing countries' contribution to the world economy remains trivial, particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa.Further, Chiguvare and Chiguvare (2014) argue that secure access to contemporary sources of energy enhances economic development and prosperity making reliable sources of energy imperative for better health, higher incomes, and allround progresses in the quality of life.These all-round progresses in the quality of life include healthcare, nutrition, sense of acceptance by intimate others, activities that promote relaxation and stress reduction, and the provision of clean water.Needless to mention another technological challenge in that their energy requirements cannot be standardized.It is therefore imperative to ensure that the grid can support generated electricity supply or that there is necessary investment to secure the connection to the grid prior to commencing a renewable energy project(Balcombe, Rigby, & Azapagic, 2013).However, the building of new infrastructure to support small projects, particularly SMEs related projects that are not capital intensive and whose returns are very minimal may be considered too expensive by many policy makers especially in governments of developing countries (EIA, 2012).
sustainable energy supply is the pre-requisite to reducing global poverty(Ruppel & Althusmann,  2016).To this end, Ruppel and Althusmann(2016)argue that the promotion of efficient renewable energy technologies reduces poverty and dependency on costly fossil fuelstherefore, contemporary energy aids development by availing reliable and efficient lighting, heating, cooking, mechanical power, transport, and telecommunication services (GEA, 2012).Thus, to reduce poverty, increase productivity, enhance competitiveness and promote economic growth by facilitating the growth of SMEs, availability of affordable and reliable energy sources, such as renewable energy sources is essential.Access to modern energy by countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (including South Africa) is exceptionally low as compared to other countries in the world and there are no sufficient efforts by the locals to deal with this inadequacy (IEA, 2014).Additionally, while there are discourses over the appropriate definition of the phrase modern energy access, the Africa Energy Outlook (2014) defines it as:  Household access to a minimum level of electricity.Household access to safer and more sustainable (as less harmful effects on health and the environment as possible) cooking and heating fuels and stoves.Access to modern energy that enables productive economic activity (mechanical power for agriculture, textile and other industries).doesnot have enough capacity to support a large number of requests from renewable energy projects and this happens frequently in remote areas where most SMEs' operations are located.Hence, the fact that SMEs' electricity market structures differ from one country to the other mainly due to historicalreasons presents yet

Table 1 .
National green energy programs 3%) and 64 (51.6%) agreed with the statement).South Africa can develop an export market within Africa for green energy products (12 (9.7%) and 71 (57.3%) agreed with the statement).A reduction on reliance on imported system and parts would assist in the proliferation of green energy and green energy products (12 (9.7%) and 66 (53.2%) agreed with the statement).The development of economies of scale in the local production would assist in growing the green energy sector (10 (8.1%) and 72 (58.1%) agreed with the statement).