The reason for this amazing state of affairs is because the price of City of Cape Town electricity for home owners has doubled, whilst the cost of Grid Tie PV has halved.
Here are the assumptions:
1) Minimum order(s) of 60KW, e.g. 12 x 5 KW houses;
2) Business owner working from home paying R1.28 per kwh incl. VAT for 1200 kwh per month;
3) Business owner has a cash deposit earning 7%, i.e. money is used from cash deposit rather than from debt;
4) System financed over 20 years;
5) Daily Average Sun Hours of 5.7 per day in Cape Town;
6) Reasonably simple roof install. Complex roof installs can push up the price to R35 per watt;
7) O&M, Operation & Maintenance costs including Repairs and Maintenance, Security, Insurance, included in PV price makes PV installed price R1.28 per kwh!!
Note that I have put a consortium together called ESX Energy Saving Experts. We have done 57 PV projects over the past 2.5 years totaling 151KW; 200W min; 36KW max.
Note that a 1200 kwh house needs 8 KW to take it off the grid, but with Energy Efficiency, one can reduce this to 3 KW. This brings the Renewable Energy price down below R1.28 per kwh.
In a year’s time if the City of Cape Town increases prices by 25% to R1.60 per kwh and assuming PV doesn’t reduce, we are at parity including borrowing from one’s bond at 10% per annum. This price is R1.60 per kwh including VAT!! If PV reduces to R20 per watt as we are expecting, then the PV price per kwh will be less than the City of Cape Town price per kwh.
David Lipschitz (pictured)
