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South Africans Are Going Green to Escape Incessant Power Cuts

With the grid collapsing, banks are stepping in to help finance solar panels and renewables.

JUWI South Africa solar farm next to Elikhulu treatment plant, in Evander, in Aug. Photographer: Guillem Sartorio$/$Bloomberg

Adelaide Changole and Antony Sguazzin

November $9,2023$

With the grid collapsing, banks are stepping in to help finance solar panels and renewables.

The Tingala lodge is about a six$-$hour drive northeast of Johannesburg where the savanna is dotted with dense clusters of trees and shrubs. Located in a nature conservancy, the lodge is popular with visitors looking to tour nearby Kruger National Park. But unrelenting energy cuts have made running the business a continual challenge. "When the power goes off, the toilets don't work, the showers don't work and that is a major interruption," said $80-$year$-$old owner Tom Joubert.

South Africa has experienced intermittent power cuts, known locally as load shedding, since $2008,$ but outages this year have escalated to the point where they stall factory operations, disrupt life and snarl traffic for extended periods on almost daily basis.

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Imposed by state$-$owned power utility Eskom SOC Ltd$.$ In an attempt to protect the grid from collapse, these blackouts occur in two$-$to$-$four blocks, sometimes multiple times a day. The number of outages reached record levels this year, and as of Augusts, the utility's energy availability factor $-$ a measure of how much energy the grid can handle $-$ was at $60\%$ meaning more than a third of power supply was inaccessible to customers.

While power cuts have eased for now, Eskom has continued to hike energy prices to cover its own rising costs.

Photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of a house in Johannesburg, in Aug. Photographer: Michele Spatari$/$Bloomberg

With no immediate fix on the horizon, South Africans are increasingly turning to renewable energy, and the country's biggest banks are stepping in to help. Since the beginning of the year, FirstRand Ltd$,$ Standard Bank Group Ltd$,$ Absa Group Ltd and Nedbank Group Ltd have rolled out financing options to assist individuals and businesses transition to solar. These efforts, combined with government clean$-$energy incentives, are expected to have a wider impact: Thanks in part to private power generation, the International Monetary Fund predicts that South Africa's national economy will grow by $1\mathrm{.}9\%$ in $2024-$ up from an anticipated $0\mathrm{.}9\%$ this year.

Orders are already surging. In a post on X$,$ economist Gaylor Montmasson$-$Clair observed that South Africa imported $$2\mathrm{.}5$ billion $(47$ billion rand$)$ worth of solar panels, lithium$-$ion batteries and inverters in the first six months of $2023,$ compared to $$1\mathrm{.}7$ billion total in $2022.$ For homeowners, solar installations don't have a set price tag; municipal energy bills suggest how many panels and batteries might be needed. But a system with $8$ to $12$ panels, an inverter and battery storage roughly what's needed to power a single house $-$ run about $$13,250,$ with smaller installations costing about $$9,800.$

In Joubert's case, setting up the $16-$panel solar installation that will liberate Tingala from Eskom will set him back around $$18,380.$ He thinks it's worth it$."$We want to go off$-$grid so that we can control the power supply," he said, estimating he'd save about $$750$ a month in energy bills.

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To individuals and small business owners like Joubert, Absa has given out $$69$ million in loans for renewable energy options, including solar products, while Standard Bank loaned $$32$ million in the first eight months of this year through its "solar$-$for$-$home" program, enabling around $450$ homes to set up installations.

Pan African hired solar installer JUWI South Africa to build a $10-$megawatt, $$8\mathrm{.}13$ million solar farm to power its Elikhulu treatment plant. Photographer: Guillem Sartorio$/$Bloomberg

Companies are making a similar calculus. In May $2022,$ fed up with the Eskom$-$imposed electricity rationing that forced the company to curtail its power use by as much as $20\%,$ gold mining company Pan African Resources Plc decided to transition to solar.

Pan African hired solar installer and renewables developer JUWI South Africa to build a $10-$megawatt, $$8\mathrm{.}13$ million solar farm to power its Elikhulu treatment plant east of Johannesburg. The pl