Solar photovoltaic contributes less than 5% to the country’s energy mix, despite the sunny climate, which is very favourable for solar photovoltaic energy generation. So far, less than 10% of households have started using solar photovoltaic power regularly, though evidence suggests rapid uptake in the last few years with a 349% increase in rooftop solar PV capacity from 983MW in March 2022 to 4412MW in June 2023.
As environmental scientists who focus on sustainable energy and household energy consumption, we conducted a scoping review to examine the barriers to household solar adoption in South Africa. Electricity price increases that are meant to fund the state owned electricity company Eskom are hitting low-income families hard. But switching to solar is too expensive for this cohort of South Africans. The current solar rebate refunds homeowners in South Africa 25% of their new panel costs to a maximum of R15,000 . Without upfront financial support, start-up and maintenance costs are quite high.
A negative perception of solar photovoltaic energy. Some households perceived it as a weak form of energy which would not meet all household needs.Our research found that municipalities and Eskom did not really support solar photovoltaic adoption because they make money from selling coal-powered electricity. When people switch to solar photovoltaic energy, Eskom and municipalities lose income. For example, researchers found that Stellenbosch municipality would lose up to 2.
Similar problems were reported in other African countries like Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria. Unlike developed countries, where spare parts are more readily available, developing nations often struggle due to a lack of local manufacturing.Social barriers such as theft were some of the reasons why households were not willing to shift to solar photovoltaic energy.