LookSee launches first, free-to-use Solar Score for South African homes
Solar power is a hot topic as South African homeowners look for protection from escalating electricity prices and reports that Eskom might implement permanent loadshedding over the next two years.
Before signing on the dotted line, Standard Bank’s home efficiency platform LookSee.co.za advises homeowners to find out whether their property is optimal for a solar installation and the amount of power they could reasonably expect to generate – particularly if they hope to take advantage of government’s plans to allow homes to sell excess power sold back to the grid.
To incentivise greater uptake of commercial and residential solar installations, President Cyril Ramaphosa recently revealed that Eskom will soon complete its work on developing a feed-in tariff for all installations on its network.
The City of Cape Town, meanwhile, has received an exemption that will allow it to buy back excess power from businesses and residences during the course of the year.
Easy access to valuable solar information
Standard Bank’s head of digital and eCommerce, Andrew van der Hoven explains: “South Africa offers excellent conditions for solar power, but this does not mean that the conditions of every property are excellent.”
“For instance, your neighbour may be able to power their own house and sell back to the grid, while your house may only support a medium-sized solar system with lower production potential.”
It is with this in mind that the company has partnered with Riskscape, a geospatial actuarial solutions provider, to develop a free-to-use, online LookSee Solar Score for South African homeowners which looks at individual property conditions.
The LookSee Solar Score is the first of its kind to provide this level of insight into South Africa’s residential properties, considering various factors that determine the potential of a solar installation on a particular home.
These include the cardinal direction of various roof panes (northerly-facing sides get the most direct sunlight hours); the slope and available roof area on optimal panes; radiant power from sunlight; and shady conditions from surrounding buildings or vegetation.
Despite the technology’s complexity, the LookSee Solar Score is remarkably easy-to-use and only requires that homeowners enter their full home address into the search field.
The system then analyses a 3-dimensional grid of the house and calculates feasibility and efficiency to generate a Solar Score out of 100.
What your solar score means
| Scoring | Description |
|---|---|
| Unfeasible 0-40 |
Your property will not generate enough electricity to benefit from a solar installation. |
| Low 40-50 |
Your property could benefit from a small solar installation, but the output could potentially be limited. |
| Average 50-60 |
Your property could benefit from a solar installation. |
| Good 60-70 |
Your property offers above-average potential for a solar installation and might be able to support an ‘off-the-grid’ system or sell-back opportunities. |
| Excellent 70-100 |
Your property has the best solar potential and could allow you to sell back to your utility or go ‘off-the-grid’. |
The Solar Score also provides insight into your usable roof area, average number of sunny days in your area and the amount of electricity you could expect to generate over the space of a month and a year.
This is particularly helpful in establishing whether you will have excess power that you could one day sell back to your utility.
An annual electricity production calculator is also included, providing an estimation of the Rand value of the energy you could generate.
And the scale allows you to see how this value increases as you move from year 1 all the way up to 25 years.
Click here to experience the Solar Score
Please note that the Solar Score is currently available for South Africa’s large metro’s (Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town), excluding sectional title properties. Sectional titles and more cities and towns will be added during 2023.
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