Cape Town businesses and households have surpassed the R50 million earnings mark since the launch of the City’s Cash for Power programme in 2022/23.
Cape Town is the first metro to buy excess solar PV power from small-scale generators, with over 1 800 small scale power sellers now participating.
Under the Cash for Power programme, the City first credits a power seller’s total municipal bill automatically down to zero, generating a cash saving. Since 23/24, both businesses and households also now have the option to apply to earn cash once their municipal bill reaches a zero balance.
Investment in small-scale generation has boomed in Cape Town as residents moved to mitigate load-shedding and take advantage of City incentives, including reduced red tape and costs to install solar. As it stands, the City can purchase power in exchange for cash from a total of 176MVA of cumulative installed SSEG capacity in Cape Town.
Alan Winde, premier of the Western Cape said this week that the province’s electricity demand is growing fast—from 4,000MW to 4,479MW this year alone.
“Our Energy Resilience Programme launched just two years ago, has already unlocked 2,000MW of new energy development and shown what can be achieved when you collaborate and focus on a critical foundation of the economy.”
He noted the following: Over 1 000 MW has been added to the provincial grid (non-Eskom & non-REIPPPP). “At this pace, we may even beat our target before 2035 and become a net exporter of energy. This is expected to attract between R21.6 billion and R68.4 billion in investment.”
In South Africa, solar capacity has jumped from 2.8GW to 7.8GW in just two years. By late 2024, 710MW of rooftop solar PV was installed in the Western Cape alone. The premier said that combined, solar could soon generate nearly a fifth of Eskom’s coal power capacity.
“We are delighted to reach the R50 million mark in Cash for Power earnings for Capetonians. In fact we are on track to double earnings in 24/25 compared to the first year of our programme,” said Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.
“This shows the extent to which households and businesses have invested in solar, and we are glad to see so many people selling back to the City in exchange for cash savings on their municipal bills and actual cash payouts. We will buy as much excess power from Capetonians as they are able to sell us. The return of Eskom’s load-shedding shows that we must keep moving at pace towards a more energy secure Cape Town that is less reliant on Eskom,” he said.
The mayor said that over three years the city is further investing over R4 billion in electricity grid upgrades to enable a decentralised energy future.
Cape Town businesses and households have already earned over R55 million, largely in municipal bill credits, since the start of the 2022/23 financial year, ending 31 January 2025.
This figure includes R43.1 million on the feed-in tariff, plus an additional R12.9 million when including the 25 cents per kWh incentive the City has added to encourage participation.
As of 1 February 2025, there are currently 1 842 sellers benefitting from Cape Town’s Cash for Power scheme as part of the City’s broader plans to end load-shedding over time. Of these sellers, 1 090 are residential and 752 are commercial/industrial.
For 24/25, the residential feed-in tariff is 92.13 cents and 82.06 cents for non-residential, with both categories benefitting from the 25 cents per unit incentive (all figures excl VAT).
Cash for Power earnings summary:
-22/23 (R10.6m sales + R3.6m incentive
-23/24 (R16.5m sales + R4.9m incentive
-24/25 until 31 Jan (R16m sales + R4.4m incentive)
Cape Town is set to accelerate its switch to green energy and limit reliance on erratic supply from Eskom after obtaining a €150 million (R2.9 billion) loan from KFW Development Bank in Germany.
“Through key policy changes, the City has been able to drive power sales by small-scale generators and make it simpler for people to invest in generation capacity. We have also launched a new online portal to make registering your solar PV system easier than ever, as well as a cheaper bi-directional meter to feed power back into the grid.
“It is important to note that customers do not need to apply for the cash for power programme if they only wish to offset their electricity and rates accounts against their total cumulated energy fed back into the City grid. They will automatically be credited on authorisation of their grid-tied SSEG system,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee member for energy, Alderman Xanthea Limberg.
