South Africa’s burgeoning solar industry is currently experiencing a gold rush as both solar installers and product suppliers rush to service the pent-up demand from homeowners desperately wanting to install solar battery back-up systems in order to maintain their lifestyle. However, in order to meet this growing appetite, some serious challenges first need to be overcome in order to effectively service the demand and assist South Africans with what has been the worst year of load shedding yet.
Every solar battery system installation is an engineering project that needs to factor in the unique nuances of the respective home. Solar installers are inundated with requests for proposals and costings that require detailed engineering designs to simulate the homeowner’s unique solar saving forecast, costs and finance.
Going solar is hugely beneficial but is not without cost, and access to the right finance can also come as a challenge with limited, to no choice, for homeowners to finance their solar battery system outside of using their available equity in their bonds. Nedbank has recently partnered with Hohm Energy to provide a trusted marketplace for homeowners and solar installers to transact across South Africa.
Hohm Energy is launching a new feature to open its marketplace to solar installers as it seeks to rapidly expand its footprint across South Africa. “We are bringing easy access to residential solar finance to market, enabling all solar installers in our network to bring their own solar projects into the Hohm marketplace for financing” says Ohlsen. The company has conducted a successful pilot of this solar partner model with a well-known solar technology company and provider, Wetility .