The decreasing cost of solar infrastructure is driving a rapid shift in how South African businesses approach their energy needs, with renewable energy becoming a central part of strategies to counter loadshedding and rising electricity tariffs.

Engineering consultancy SRK Consulting South Africa MD Andrew van Zyl says the affordability of solar power is reshaping the local energy mix and helping companies reduce their exposure to grid disruptions and escalating costs. He adds that the integration of battery energy storage systems (BESS) is further strengthening the value of renewables by allowing businesses to use stored energy when it is most needed.

“The falling cost of solar energy infrastructure in South Africa has helped to make renewables an essential part of local businesses’ response to loadshedding and the steep rise in electricity costs. BESS now adds another valuable dimension to the flexibility of hybrid energy solutions being developed,” says Van Zyl.

He explains that many companies are now using a combination of power sources  including grid electricity, diesel generators and solar PV systems to ensure consistent supply. The addition of battery storage enables them to fine-tune these systems, reducing reliance on expensive or carbon-intensive generation while improving efficiency.

Van Zyl notes that hybrid systems allow users to balance different power sources according to their energy needs.

“Taking into account their respective needs for baseload energy, businesses can now tweak their hybrid systems to better suit their applications. In many cases, a user can employ BESS to start overcoming the intermittency of renewable sources such as solar, while retaining other baseload sources in the energy mix.”

Globally, the adoption of battery storage has accelerated as more countries shift toward renewable generation. Van Zyl says that in the US, installed BESS capacity increased by more than 1 000% between 2020 and 2024, growing from 2.4 GW to 27 GW.

“Research from S&P Capital IQ indicates that US capacity could exceed 170 GW by 2030. In Europe, similar growth is being seen as countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK expand their renewable portfolios. The share of intermittent renewable energy in the installed capacity mix across these regions has risen from between 25% and 40% in 2015 to between 50% and 60% in 2024, with projections of up to 80% by 2030.”

Van Zyl adds that one of the biggest benefits of solar and battery systems is that they can be scaled gradually.

“A key advantage of solar and battery solutions is that they can be added incrementally as a company’s budget allows. This makes them highly accessible technologies that progressively build up a business’s energy resilience, cost efficiency and sustainability,” he says.

Rooftop Solar

SRK Consulting partner and principal environmental scientist Philippa Burmeister states that local businesses’ investment in rooftop solar has already made a significant contribution to South Africa’s energy capacity.

“Rooftop PV installations around the country have added about 5.5 GW of energy-generating capacity over the past five years. This solar capacity is equivalent to one new coal-fired power station. It was added in about one-third of the time it would have taken to complete such a power station – and at no cost to [State-owned power utility] Eskom or the government, beyond the tax incentives offered in 2023,”  Burmeister adds.

She believes the expansion of solar power, supported by affordable BESS, shows the potential of private-sector participation in strengthening South Africa’s energy security.

She concludes that, as the technology becomes more accessible, businesses will be able to store and use renewable energy more efficiently across their operations.