South Africa's Solar Surge Dents Eskom Revenue

South Africa has witnessed an almost quadrate hike in solar power generation capacity from rooftop installations from March of last year to this year. This growth has now started affecting revenues of the national utility, Eskom, and municipalities, which distribute electricity. Eskom, South Africa's primary national utility, reported a 2.3% reduction in their sales owing to this boom.

Justified by recurrent power outages, the rapidly growing interest and subsequent installations of solar panels on residential and commercial premises have seen an upturn like never before. More than 700,000 residents of the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, too, are experiencing the wave with the sunlit revolution costing the municipality a cool R350 million in revenue, affirmed Pravin Gordhan, the Minister of Public Enterprises.

Quantifying the lurch towards renewable, Pravin Gordhan cited that by the end of August, South Africa had installed solar panels capable of generating a whopping 4,481 MW, marking an increase of 2,500 MW since last year. Notably, these figures do not include solar panels installed as part of commercial plants by private companies for the national grid.

However, as per the minister, this harnessing of sun's energy does not only bear environmental positivity but also paves the way towards energy reliability and sustainability amidst the frequent power outages.