With memories of the most recent bout of Stage 4 load shedding still fresh, Eskom is forecasting as many as 100 days of load shedding between April and August. Needless to say, that’s about as welcome as sour milk in your cereal and will have many South Africans trying to figure out how they can free themselves from Eskom's clutches.
As no immediate improvement in the overall state of generation is likely, some may even be tempted to cut Eskom off completely and go off-grid. Thanks to consistently falling solar panel and battery prices, it’s increasingly viable too. Tempting as that kind of total freedom might sound, it comes with its own set of pitfalls. In fact, while most people should do everything they can to protect themselves from load shedding, they’re probably better off maintaining some form of grid connectivity.
“People often approach solar providers with the ambition of taking their homes completely off the grid,” says Matthew Cruise, Lead Campaign Manager at Hohm Energy. “But once they do a little research, it quickly becomes apparent that there is a much better option, as completely off-grid does not make sense financially”.
Infrastructure and cost
Two of the biggest barriers that any homeowner faces when it comes to going completely off-grid are infrastructure and cost. Starting with the solar panels themselves, many people simply don’t have enough rooftop real estate to go completely off-grid. Additionally, an off-grid solution requires much bigger batteries to ensure that the house is powered through the night and in periods of cold, cloudy weather.
“That kind of outlay is simply too expensive for most households,” says Cruise. “And, even if it isn’t, they may not have the necessary space for either the rooftop solar panels or the money for the batteries."
He also points out that homeowners taking a “once and done” rooftop solar approach may end up missing out on advancements and further cost reductions in the space.
“Solar panels are becoming increasingly efficient, with batteries becoming more affordable and able to store more power for longer and inverters becoming cheaper and taking up less space,” Cruise says. “That means anyone going off-grid from the start may end up paying more than if they’d taken a gradual, modular approach to solar.”
Selling up
Another potential obstacle to going completely off-grid is what happens when a homeowner decides to sell their house and move on.
“While having solar infrastructure may be attractive to potential buyers, homeowners may be doing themselves a disservice if they go off-grid and try to sell,” says Cruise. “Some potential purchasers may be turned off by having to maintain an ageing solution or worry that they don’t have an alternative if something in the system fails.”
Building from a back-up
Ultimately, that hedging of options may be the most important reason for homeowners to stay grid-tied rather than going completely off-grid. Even if a homeowner has enough solar and battery capacity to be off-grid, they have a failsafe should anything go wrong by staying “grid-tied”.
According to Cruise, this kind of approach also makes rooftop solar a much more viable option for most homeowners.
“A lot of people are unaware that you can start out small and build up when it comes to rooftop solar,” says Cruise. “A solution that protects homeowners from load shedding and reduces power bills is well within the reach of many people. From there, they can keep adding to the system and become less and less reliant on Eskom, while still keeping Eskom power as a backup solution.”
“While going off-grid is certainly an option for people in remote locations with unreliable grid supply, the vast majority of people are better off going for a grid-tied solution,” he concludes.
