There have been great strides for the solar industry over the last few weeks with key players in the commercial industry innovating new methods of capturing solar power through floating solar panels which can be placed in damns, lakes or even the ocean, along with solar prices plummeting in the latest tenders with the lowest bid on solar at $0.02481/kWh and SAB (South African Breweries) putting a solar strategy in place to harness solar power for their operations, among a variety of other impressive changes in solar. With all these changes happening, its time to consider solar power for your home and business.
With ongoing loadshedding, solar energy in homes and businesses are growing in demand as the most affordable and sustainable alternative to the current power crisis. Whilst many solar companies have struggled amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy in South Africa is seemingly starting to see a slow recovery and with that the demand for solar has grown as more businesses see the hindrance that loadshedding is to efficient operations, and homeowners sit in the dark at the most inconvenient times of the day. Affordability plays a big role in the adoption of solar apart from being off-grid and unaffected by loadshedding, with rising electricity costs which have seen an increase of 300% over the last decade alone, there is no better time to go solar because it cuts electricity costs in half.
South Africa as a whole has seen the benefit of solar in the last decade and as a result has grown their solar infrastructure capacity from a mere 2MW in 2010 to a whopping 2500MW as of 2019. As of 2020, South Africa has reached a stage where power generated from new wind and solar power farms is 200% cheaper than that generated by both Medupi and Kusile, thanks to its fantastic return on investment and low running costs. With these figures in mind, its no wonder South Africa is on an aggressive drive to shift to solar in the coming years with its most recent win being a $131bn investment from international governments into its move away from coal power.
This is the progress that South Africa’s government has made with solar power yet, the residential market is still seeing a very slow growth rate, partly we believe due to a lack of understanding of the return on investment and the annual savings provided by solar and a misconception about the costs thereof, along with the financial options for installing solar. In one of our last articles, we provided a case-study to show the affordability and the return on investment that a basic solar energy solution would provide to a household – Click here to view it.
If you’re still uncertain about whether solar is the way to go, why not get in touch with one of our consultants and get a situation-specific quotation and financial breakdown, so you can see both the impact and the benefit that solar will have for your home. Get in touch with us now!
