For over 10 years, South Africa has been facing major unreliable electricity supply issues from power utility ESKOM. This has lead many South Africans to turn towards renewable energy sources, especially solar energy, for their household needs.

This is especially true of middle-class and affluent South Africans, who have been installing solar panels en masse: Installed rooftop capacity has increased more than fourfold from 1000MW to over 4000 MW between March 2022 and July 2023.

For the majority of poor South Africans, however, solar energy remains largely unaffordable: While many people in low-income housing have solar water heaters, very few rely on solar energy for appliances and lights.

Solar Rain, a small business in Khayelitsha, is seeking to change that reality. Its founder, MK Blessing, a qualified electrician, started his company in 2021 after realising that there was a market opportunity to increase access to renewable energy for local residents.

Since the start of 2024, the electricity supply has been more stable than in the past years. There hasn’t been “loadsheddings” in Cape Town and this is not encouraging people to switch to Solar anymore.

However, the cost of electricity from Eskom keeps increasing and the incentive to switch to another source of energy than the grid still exists. Solar Rain needs to adapt its strategy to this new reality, establish whether or not a profitable market exists for Solar in the Townships with no loadshedding and find a way to communicate better with his target market.