Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has announced that February 2023 was the best month on record for new solar PV installations in the city.
This, as residents look to capitalise on the city’s Cash for Power programme to help end load-shedding over time.
In January, the city received National Treasury exemption to purchase additional power from households and businesses, as the country battles worsening power blackouts.
South Africa continues to see the adverse effects of load-shedding, as a result of Eskom’s failure to maintain its aging fleet of coal-fired power plants and corruption, among other issues.
Over the years, Cape Town has been at the forefront of calling on government to be allowed to procure its own energy in order to wean itself from the embattled power utility.
“We are energised by data showing February to have shattered all records for solar PV installation applications to the City of Cape Town,” says Hill-Lewis.
“The city has received 1 040 solar PV installation applications so far this year, with just over 600 of these in February, making it the biggest month, to date.”
According to the mayor, January and February alone account for 11% of all solar PV applications received since records began in 2018.
“This is encouraging progress towards more and more businesses and residents helping us to end load-shedding over time by selling their excess power for cash. This is exactly the market response we were hoping for by making recent policy changes to end the net consumption requirement so that we can pay actual cash for power, instead of just crediting municipal bills.
“We also ran an extensive radio campaign in February calling on residents to take advantage of these exciting policy shifts. New national tax incentives will further enhance the viability of solar PV investment.”
Cape Town is the first city in the country to offer households and businesses cash for their excess rooftop solar power.
The city is set to start paying businesses cash for power before June, and residents will be able to start selling power for cash later this year.
Cape Town says it is forging ahead with its three-phase procurement for load-shedding protection, with the goal of protecting residents from the first four stages of Eskom’s load-shedding.
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