What this means is an optional augmentation of new and existing homes with solar electricity for homes purchased from ooba. This will allow homeowners to enjoy low-cost uninterrupted power with less impact on the environment.
The initiative promises to ensure that there is no absence of steady electricity to homeowners especially with Eskom's new plan to effect load-shedding in South Africa for the next 5 years in order to tackle the imbalance between supply and demand of electricity.
This initiative was set in motion to also curb environmental hazards resulting from the use of non-renewable and harmful forms of energy. While 80% of electricity generation in South Africa is still coal-based, solar electricity organizations like WiSolar, have continuously come up with innovative approaches to transform the power sector through its various approaches to make solar electricity available to the average homeowner. One of which includes the provision of solar financing to make rooftop Solar PV systems affordable for households across the country.
The company which was founded in 2016 had initially gone into partnership with LG in March 2020 to make solar panels available to a wider range of customers. It further expanded its operations to Nigeria and later created an opportunity for franchise.
With projects like that of the $200 billion World Bank climate action fund for 2021 – 2025, measures to mitigate climate change continues to be integrated into the operations and energy policies of different countries around the world and solar energy has become a more acceptable form of power, being that it is renewable, clean, reliable, and available at a magnitude that is larger than the world’s current and anticipated requirement.
From a statement by Tonye Irims, the founder of WiSolar, “There has been a reduced appetite to finance coal as global attention shifts towards natural gas and renewables. Also, this initiative will make for self-sustaining EV (Electronic Vehicle) ready homes in South Africa.”
According to NASA, the sun has 6.5 billion years of life contained in the Sun, implying that, solar energy is not likely to run out any time soon unlike other conventional forms of energy like coal and natural gas which are very limited in availability and are likely to be exhausted in the near future. Also, converting solar energy into electricity does not release any greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
As opposed to the assumed impression about the affordability of solar power, the running cost is less once the solar panels are installed. This is great because homeowners that are subscribed to the ooba mortgage plan do not need to worry about solar electricity installation at a later stage since the option is available with home ownership.
This collaboration will be favorable to the average South African as more of its benefits include the option of splitting your home load across the grid and solar technologies; voltage and frequency stabilization from step down transformers, peak and critical load balancing, and on-demand power management.
