Waking Up to Solar Power in South Africa

• by Emma Patel
• |
• 22 March

In the last few years South Africa has been plagued by Loadshedding nationally and in some provinces frequent power cuts thanks to an ailing infrastructure. Surprisingly it has taken growing incidents of power failure and growing concerns about the ability of Eskom, the national power provider, to produce power to wake people up to solar power. How and why it took so long to wake up to solar in a country with so much sunlight is a long story but thankfully, the country now has.  But what are the reason why you should wake up to solar energy?

Save Money
With energy costs rising and set to rise further thanks to political wrangling within Eskom, Solar power will save you money. Many homes save hundreds, if not thousands of Rands on their energy bills every year thanks to solar power. Saving money is one of the top reasons many people choose to move to solar to power their entire property or at least part of it.

Reasonable Payback
While saving money starts from day one once solar power is installed there is the matter of paying back the cost of the system. Paying cash for your solar power solution can should take less than 4 years when paid for through the energy savings made. When financed, the payback period is a little longer at around 5 years. However, there are a growing number of ways to share costs and reduce payback periods and these will be discussed later on the WhichSolar website – subscribe here to keep informed. 

Increased property value
Solar energy has taken its time to become popular in South Africa but one thing has become clear with properties that have installed even only partial solar energy solutions. Just having solar energy power a pool pump, for example, can increase the value of your property. The long-term value of solar in times where money is tight and power is becoming expensive make any solar powered property more desirable and thus the value of your property can increase significantly.

Easy to maintain 
One of the least know facts about solar is that the solutions require virtually no maintenance. As long as the battery banks and inverters are looked after with batteries needing replacement from time to time, your solar energy solution should look after itself. The other fact about solar is that the panels on average last between 20 and 25 years, which when the payback period is taken into consideration means you have free electricity for between 15 and 20 years.

Eco-friendly
Perhaps the best-known reason why people are waking up to solar is its eco-friendly power production. Power from the sun burns no fossil fuels and requires no nuclear reactors it simply harnesses what South Africa has an abundance of, even during winter.  Yes there the detractors that will tell you how dirty the process of making solar panels is and that is a concern for some. However, the manufacturing processes are being cleaned up and over the next few weeks and months, this will be explained in more detail – Follow us on Twitter and Facebook to be kept informed.

Make money
Many home or business solar energy solutions produce excess power. At present, the vast majority of this power is wasted and lost. However, there are plans being discussed that will permit excess power to be fed back into the grid – watch this space for more details 

Solar Power is a superb option for producing the power you home or business needs and there are many benefits. To find out how much solar can save your home or business why not try out our online calculator and have WhichSolar help you wake up to solar energy.