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- There's a new stokvel platform to help you and 11 others pay off a solar PV system in 12 months.
- You get to have your solar PV installation immediately without having to pay upfront costs.
- Founder, Tebogo Sehume, believes this solution can help solar PV systems be more affordable.
- For climate change news and analysis, go to News24 Climate Future.
As load shedding becomes even more embedded in modern South African life, more and more people are looking to solar PV installations to beat the power outages. There's just one problem – solar PV systems are quite pricey, costing anything above R80 000.
But when there's a will, there's a way. And sometimes, that way points you to an existing solution. Founder and CEO of SunKissed Technologies, Tebogo Sehume, recently told News24 that his startup is looking to stokvels to help people afford solar PV installations.
Stokvels involve a group of people pooling their financial resources together in order to achieve certain goals. There are different kinds, but the central idea is that each member contributes a sum of money over a period, and then a lump sum is paid out to different individuals on a rotational basis.
This model is now adopted by SunKissed Technologies so that people can afford its solar PV installations through its stokvel platform known as "Solar Society".
"We realised that to deal with load shedding, solar is a solution, but the problem with solar is that it is really expensive," said Sehume. "We decided to leverage this financial system, stokvels, to help people afford solar systems," he explained.
The Solar Society stokvel is targeted at both households and small businesses which ordinarily would not be able to afford the upfront costs of a solar PV system – that includes battery storage and an inverter. "By offering a community-based solar financing platform, we aim to address the financial barriers that prevent many small businesses and households from adopting solar energy."
READ | South African companies innovate to tackle solar power inequality
Sehume explained that a pilot was run in October 2022 with three people. The main finding was that people are willing and able to make monthly contributions for a solar PV system. And importantly, people didn't like waiting for their solar PV installations.
"With stokvels every person must wait for their month to get their lump sum," said Sehume. But the aim is to do things differently.
SunKissed Technologies will install the solar PV systems immediately, without upfront costs. But the stokvel members will then help each other pay off their systems over 12 months.
This is possible because each stokvel has to have 12 members. So essentially, one solar PV system will be paid off each month for 12 months.
Sehume said that SunKissed Technologies is partnering with a local bank and insurance provider to support the stokvel model.
According to Sehume, SunKissed Technologies is relying on equipment from a local supplier, SkyNet Solar. The five-person team at SunKissed Technologies includes a chief financial officer, a chief technology officer, head of sales and marketing and an electrical engineer to certify the installations.
READ | All you need to know about how the solar PV tax incentives will work
SunKissed Technologies offers three different kinds of solar PV systems.
The cheapest and smallest – consisting of two panels and a battery – at R2 840 per month can power a few appliances such as a washing machine, fridge, lights and a cellphone, an LCD TV and a sound system.
The most expensive or biggest system – consisting of six panels and a battery – is R5 750 per month. It powers additional appliances like a microwave, kettle, as well as a gate motor, garage door, electric fence and an alarm system.
Since launching in October 2022 and having run the pilot, SunKissed Technologies hasn't had any customers so far. But Sehume said the ongoing load shedding challenges have led to many enquiries and interested parties.
In launching the business, Sehume said that he learnt that there is not a lot of knowledge about how solar PV systems really work. As SunKissed Technologies grows, the aim is to improve consumer education about solar PV systems and learn to manage energy more efficiently in households and businesses.
