Are you looking for solar finance? Find out more about the Nedbank Solar Energy Finance plan for South Africans.
Getting solar for your home is not cheap. We recently wrote an article based on a solar installation quote for a 3-bedroom house to go 70% off-grid and not many people have that much cash lying around.
Banks and financial services providers are starting to step up with solar financial products that meet the growing demand for residential solar installations.
Let’s unpack the Nedbank Solar Energy Finance Plan.
It’s quite clear that South Africa’s energy needs are going to come from more than Eskom alone. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 25 July announcement detailed an emergency energy plan focused heavily on renewables.
One particular aspect of that plan is very exciting for home owners: your solar installation can feed excess energy into the grid and you can get paid for the solar energy that you don’t use (at an as unyet specified rate).
Other benefits of solar include:
The Nedbank Solar Energy Finance product is a way for you to finance the costs of your solar installation through your home loan.
This can be done in three ways:
The extra you spend on your home loan repayments will be offset by the money you save on your electricity bill PLUS you have the advantage of reliable energy availability through the solar panels on your roof.
Partnership with Hohm Energy
Nedbank have partnered with Hohm Energy, a marketplace for solar installations. The Hohm Energy website allows you to easily find accredited solar installers near you.
The Nedbank MFC platform is also introducing solar energy finance at the end of August 2022.
Your water heating energy requirements are one of the largest contributor to your energy costs. Nedbank offers a smart geyser management telemetry device (Nedbank Senseable) which alerts you to any geyser problems and allows you to control and optimise your geyser remotely.
We’ll watch closely for announcements from other banks about solar finance. Many people are already taking out additional loans or mortgages and solar-specific financial products are sure to proliferate in the very near future.
Innovative companies like www.decentral.co.za are offering rental options for solar.
This is an attractive alternative for those not wanting to outright buy a solar installation.
The advantage to this approach is that you are in effect renting your roof space to an independent power producer (IPP) while enjoying reliable electricity.