GoSolr plans to spend R10 billion for a larger roll out of its model of renting solar panels and batteries.
The two-and-a-half-year-old company seeks to install about 500MW of solar-generation capacity in four years. That’s up from its current 70MW, said Andrew Middleton, GoSolr’s chief executive officer. It has attracted investment and financing from Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital Investments Ltd. and Standard Bank.
"That’s our mission," Middleton, 39, said in an interview in GoSolr’s head office on Monday. GoSolr, together with"all the other companies combined, can end this crisis," he said. While South Africa has some of the world’s best solar potential, just 0.7% of its 17.8 million households use the technology for electricity. That compares with 31% for Australia, 4% in the UK and 3% in the US. Of the power generated in the country 9.9% comes from solar and 77% from coal, according to GoSolr.