Big payday for Cape Town homeowners with rooftop solar

Cape Town businesses and households have earned around R55 million since the City’s Cash for Power programme started in 2022.

The City of Cape Town revealed this in a statement on Tuesday (25 February), which noted that over 1,800 small-scale power sellers are now participating in the City’s programme.

Under the Cash for Power programme, the City explained that it automatically credits a power seller’s total municipal bill to zero, generating cash savings.

“Since 23/24, businesses and households also now have the option to apply to earn cash once their municipal bill reaches a zero balance,” it said.

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis noted that Cape Town businesses and households have already earned over R55 million, mainly in municipal bill credits, from the 2022/23 financial year until 31 January 2025.

This figure includes R43.1 million on the feed-in tariff, plus a further R12.9 million when including the 25c per kWh incentive the City has added to encourage participation.

As of 1 February 2025, there are currently 1 842 sellers benefitting from Cape Town’s Cash for Power scheme as part of the City’s broader plans to end load-shedding over time. Of these sellers, 1 090 are residential, and 752 are commercial/industrial.

For 24/25, the residential feed-in tariff is 92.13 cents and 82.06 cents for non-residential, with both categories benefitting from the 25c per unit incentive, Hill-Lewis added.

Investment in small-scale generation has boomed in Cape Town as residents move to mitigate load-shedding and take advantage of City incentives, including reduced red tape and costs to install solar panels.

As of February 2025, the City is purchasing power in exchange for cash from a total of 176MVA of cumulative installed SSEG capacity in Cape Town.

“We are delighted to reach the R50 million mark in Cash for Power earnings for Capetonians. In fact, we are on track to double earnings in 2025 compared to the first year of our programme,” the City said.

This massive amount shows how much households and businesses have invested in solar, with more expected to come online this year.

“We [the City] will buy as much excess power from Capetonians as they are able to sell us. The return of Eskom’s load-shedding shows that we must keep moving towards a more energy-secure Cape Town that is less reliant on Eskom,” the City added.

Hill-Lewis added that the City plans to invest over R4 billion in electricity grid upgrades over the next three years to enable this dynamic, decentralised energy future.

Cape Town seals R2.9 billion electricity deal

Cape Town is set to accelerate its switch to green energy and limit reliance on Eskom’s erratic supply after winning a €150 million (R2.9 billion) loan from Germany’s KFW Development Bank.

The bank said the loan will be used to bolster the power grid of South Africa’s second-biggest City, allowing the transmission of more renewable energy.

It could also be used to help the municipality generate more of its own power, it added. 

“The purpose of the investment is to improve the grid infrastructure of Cape Town to allow for the future integration of more renewable energy and an increase of grid-connected households,” KFW said in an emailed response to questions.

The loan comes as cities in South Africa are pushing to reduce their reliance on the state-owned utility Eskom because of surging electricity prices and power cuts.

This week, the country was hit with its worst rolling blackouts in almost a year after units at some of Eskom’s coal-fired power plants tripped.

While feasibility studies are needed to determine how the money will be used, Kadri Nassiep, Cape Town’s executive director of energy and climate change, said some of it could be earmarked for projects including revamping a hydropower facility and building a solar plant.

KFW declined to reveal the duration of the loan or the interest rate that will be charged. 

Nassiep has previously said that Cape Town, a city of four million people, could double the size of its 180 MW Steenbras hydropower plant. The City has held tenders for the provision of power from private producers. 

Reported with Bloomberg