February sees record number of solar PV applications in Cape Town: mayor

A record number of solar PV installation applications were received by the City of Cape Town in February. 

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said on Thursday 1,040 applications have been received this year — more than 600 of them in February. 

The increase comes on the heels of confirmation by the city it would offer households and businesses seeking to mitigate the effects of load-shedding cash for their excess rooftop solar power. Businesses will be paid for excess power before June and residents later in the year.

“January and February alone account for an impressive 11% of all solar PV applications received since records began in 2018,” said Hill-Lewis. 

“This is encouraging progress towards more and more businesses and residents helping us to end load-shedding over time by selling their excess power for cash. This is exactly the market response we were hoping for by making recent policy changes to end the net consumption requirement so that we can pay actual cash for power, instead of just crediting municipal bills. 

“We also ran an extensive radio campaign in February calling on residents to take advantage of these exciting policy shifts. New national tax incentives will further enhance the viability of solar PV investment,” he added. 

TimesLIVE