 Are you tired of checking your neighborhood's load shedding schedule? Well, today we are talking about solar power solutions. This is the Private Property Podcast, I'm Tumi, let's get lit. Our guest today is a professional who focuses on designing strategies and for business units as well as products for customer segments in line with the customer's knees as well as the market trends. She's a product portfolio manager at Apsa Home Loans. Let's give a warm welcome to none other than Poshia Letape. Poshia, good evening and thank you so much for joining us. Good evening to me and thank you so much for having us this evening. Good evening to the Private Property Family and good evening to Zifei as well. Thank you. Today's second guest finds himself in a position that supports his vision of ensuring a better future for all. He's the head of renewable energy, retail and business banking for the Apsa Group. Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome Vishay Ravipal. Vishay, thank you so much for joining us as well. Thank you and good evening to me and the viewers joining in today. I really do feel that this is quite a pertinent and relevant topic for us to be discussing, especially what we all experience with the recent low-shedding as well as for those that are not aware, as of the 1st of June we've now municipalities have basically implemented their tariff increases. So thanks and I'm looking forward to the discussion. Now looking forward to jump straight into it and provide solutions for the Private Property Family watching tonight. So let's jump in and talk. Why is solar considered one of the easiest ways to begin your journey of greening a home? Vishay, I'll start with you. So we are seeing increased utilization and acceptance of solar energy technologies. I mean, with the ease of installation, the decreasing cost of this technology and, you know, along with technology advancements, as well as supportive reforms that we've seen as a country. Consumers are increasingly moving toward becoming prosumers. A terminology I use for someone who is both a producer as well as a consumer of electricity. Apart from that is solar energy is free as it comes from the sun and it can be used to power your home. The solar PV energy and systems use radiation to generate electricity. And Africa has an abundant source of this resource. Even on Claudia days, I mean, if you had to look at the radiation map of the country on Claudia days, we have more energy than anywhere else in countries such as that of Japan or Germany, who are the leaders when it comes to adopting these technologies. Just showing you how much of free energy we have in our country. Sure. No, thank you so much for that. And Portia, you know, with all that Vishal has said, a lot of people still believe that solar is unaffordable. Is this true? And if not, how can one take advantage of using solar? Thank you so much for this question, Jimmy. And I think you can also add on to this. And I think most of us are one thing to go off grid. We use the term of great quite simply until you actually get to see the cost of going off grid. We have seen that the price of solar has reduced over the years. Obviously, because of demand in the market, right? You see a lot of movement at global around people being conscious of having to come at risk to wanting to go off grid and use alternative energy sources. So because of the demand, we've actually seen the price of solar decrease and allow the state to also add on to that. Yeah, correct. And I think just to touch on what you just mentioned, Portia, you're quite correct. You know, over the last decade, we've seen the price of these technologies decrease quite nicely. But despite this reduction, you know, the initial cost of a PV system are relatively high when compared to non renewable energy sources such as diesel generators and coal powered station fuel. I mean, fossil fuel generator electricity. However, unlike non renewable energy sources, PV has no fuel cost, no operational cost and very low maintenance cost. And it should therefore be considered as a long term investment. I mean, when you look at the cost of energy, which is defined as a rent per kilowatt from a PV system, it's it's dependent on the size of the system and the total cost that is, you know, including capital costs and operational maintenance. And but this must be viewed over the system's lifespan. So typically larger PV systems offer lower energy costs because of the, you know, when you have to compare to that of smaller systems due to the lower installation costs. But the financial feasibility of PV systems will depend on the cost of energy that the PV system offer over its lifespan. And it is being lower than the energy cost that one would incur from consuming from either Escom or your local municipality over the same time period. And while also taking into account the expected annual tariff increases. I mean, just to shed a light there, we've seen an average over the last decade of close to 10.5% increase year on year. Even this just year, you know, Escom was asking for close to 25% of the tariff increase. I mean, we know that they want a court case but against Mercer to claw back for those years of lower tariff increases. And that amounted to close to 69 billion which will they will have to recover from the consumer. So taking all of that into consideration and obviously doing the sums. So the PV over its lifespan of its duration of operation works out to be much cheaper than what we currently pay. Not sure. Quite insightful. And I'm sure anybody who's looking at, you know, adopting solar energy or using it is probably thinking, rethinking that decision. Let me come back to you, Portia, being a portfolio manager, a product portfolio manager, you know, in absent home loans. Can one get financing for solar? And if not, are there other available channels for them to secure finance if they want to implement it? Absolutely. And I think, you know, a lot of us have seen the quotations, you know, that we get from various solar installers. And the first thing that you ask yourself is, where am I going to get the money to pay for the solar solution? You know, at some point we will discuss the different options that are available to customers in terms of solar. However, depending on how much you need from a finance perspective, you can look at various products that the banks offer, right? So for someone who already has an existing home loan and the home loan has been with the bank for quite a while, they've had this property for quite a while, we know that property appreciates in value. So you may find that you do have equity in your property. We discussed this, I think, in one of our podcasts, you know, what equity actually means. So you could actually approach your bank and apply for a further advance or a re-advance. So a further advance basically means that you are registering another bond against the property based on the increased value of the property. And a re-advance is the difference between your spending balance at the time and your original loan amount. And the bank will actually extend these funds to you in cash, right, so that you can pay towards the solar solution. We do also have unsecured lending products like your credit card or your personal loan, if you feel that you don't want to access equity in your property or, let's say, you don't want to use a home loan product to finance the solar solution. And then, I think, ultimately, if you do want to start basing towards your solar solution, you can, right? If you don't want to be paying any interest charges towards any financing options. I think, lastly, one of the products that consumers don't generally know exist is when you switch your home loan from one bank to another and you have access to your property, you can actually apply to switch your home loan and access to access to your property as well to pay for the finance of your solution. Thank you so much for that. Fisha Elit, Naupocha has given us the money. She's given us the green light to say, you can now do this to your home. What are the solar options that are available to homeowners? And, you know, the different solutions that are available in the market now, where does one start? Yeah, so I guess this is a very important point, right? Yeah, especially when customers need to educate themselves around the various types of solutions. For example, I mean, if you need to survive low trading and you don't have a large amount to invest that is into solar, but we've got Porsche there to assist, you may consider an uninterrupted power supply, which is referred to as an inverter in some instances. And this solution basically won't save you electricity and it doesn't use solar energy, though, but the electricity from the grid or from where your utility provider is stored into a battery and that is then used in the in the instances of power outages. Alternatively, you can consider a hybrid solution and that is basically a solar panel that are included as part of the solution, which includes battery energy storage. And this energy is then used to power you or provide you with electricity during power outages. This option is basically the most common one as it helps you to reduce your energy cost as well as becoming resilient to that of low trading. Alternatively, we see solutions such as off grids and these are larger solar systems and are required in terms of backup for an hour or longer durations from an hour perspective. And these systems basically are integrated with alternatives such as a generator, but obviously there are steps that you need to take when you are going off grid to ensure that you remain powered during those times of low trading. For instance, you need to take steps for your home in terms of making it a bit more green. Such as using LED lighting to reduce your consumption, changing your electric stoves to that of gas and changing your geysers to either solar geysers. And in that case, you reduce the amount of your solar component, which then becomes a bit more easier and palatable in terms of having that solution adopted from a CAPEX perspective. It's always advisable, though, to contact a credible installer to conduct a side visit and to conduct an energy audit to determine your unique household needs. And they can recommend a solution that suits your needs. And some installers can basically recommend a bigger inverter that allows you to upgrade your system over time. And that's the beauty part about these solutions is that they are modular and they can increase in size depending on what your budget allows you for. No, thank you so much for that, Vishal. I'll jump into quickly to a question that we received on social media. Shaqon Kaorelo is asking, is renewable energy is renewable energy generation regulated? And if yes, what is the threshold? He has a second question or a follow up rather that says, can community schemes also up to go off the grid completely? And what would the average demand for a scheme be? I know this is a couple of questions in one, but can we try to tackle them to say how can they approach it? Excellent. So I think I'll take this one because it's technical and it will align to what I address on a day to day basis. So when we talk residential and, you know, we talk about the size of the system, this is a regulated environment. So it's regulated by municipalities and it's the Energy Regulation Act. Together with that of what NERSA, which is our National Energy Regulator, that sets out in terms of how does these installations need to abide to ensure that it's legal? And we call it an SSEG, which is Small Scale Embedded Generation. And those are rules and regulations that are set out by the municipality, as well as SCOM having their own application and rules that need to be followed. But generally for a household, it's dependent on the size of your circuit breaker. For instance, if you have a 60 amp circuit breaker, you are limited to the size of the system that you would be installing. And I think that amounts to about 60 to 75 percent of your breaker size. When it comes to larger clients who, and I mean talking to your scheme that you just mentioned. So depending on the substation and the transformer that's supplying that area with electricity, you can only go up to a maximum of 75 percent of the size of that transformer. And that's the limitation that is set out. For those schemes to install, and we see a lot of what we call independent power producers, they basically install these systems and they sell power, which is called power purchase agreements, either to the municipality or to the off-check itself, which could be the individual from a residential perspective. So there is those options that are available. And we found quite a bit of that, especially in my space, where it's the larger size projects and we do fund them. And we've seen that they're gaining quite a good traction, especially from a community perspective because they have land that's available where they install these solar farms and then sell off this electricity to the consumer who runs up the same network at a much cheaper rate at close to 25 percent less than what they would be procuring from their utility provider. So, yes, those options are available and those are the limitations, unfortunately, that we see from a regulation perspective. Sure. Now, thank you so much for that very informative. Let's just then talk, rounding our conversation up tonight, how much maintenance is required with solar? You know, what are the future costs and maybe even maybe an affordability scenario that we can put out on the table. And I would like both of you to chip in here because of the technicality, but also with the finances, I'm very aware that, you know, a lot of people go into this and they don't know how much it's going to cost. So, let's say I've already gotten in advance on my loan, I've added my second one, but I need more money. What happens in the case? Do I have to go to an extra source? And even with that, are there specific things that are needed with the maintenance, Vishay? So, you can both tackle that one, please. Pusha, let me start with you. I think I'll allow Vishay to start because I think from a technical perspective, she's best suited to answer. I'll add on to at the end. Thank you. Definitely, Vishay. I'll touch a bit on the financing side. So, obviously, if we financed you for your system and you are considering to increase the size, we will definitely look at it. You know, we basically look at it because each client has his own profile and his own requirements. And we model these and we have the tools available to do so from a bank perspective to see what the savings is and what the benefit is going to be onto the client. Obviously, giving us the comfort, knowing that the client is paying towards an asset which can generate in excess of 20 years of electricity and is paying towards an asset that's going to make him basically sustainable, but also hedge against that of tariff increases, making his budget a bit more easier to manage and to basically pay off the loan that is required. When it comes to the maintenance side, you know, rooftop and fixed ground mark systems require minimal maintenance, especially associated to the cost other than the occasional cleaning that is required. So most PV modules on the market today also comes in with a warranty in excess of 20 years, both from a performance as well as a product warranty, meaning that the power output will not go below 80% of its rated power over that 25, 20 to 25 years. And this obviously varies depending on the product choice that is being considered. However, on the components such as your inverters, that generally comes with a five to seven year warranty and we're seeing the market change now to a 10 year warranty. And coming back to the cleaning which is the maintenance required, we are seeing some good development in terms of technology whereby some of these modules now come with self-cleaning glass that is basically a lamination that is on those panels, which then self-cleans itself when there's rain. So it's actually, when you look at it from a maintenance perspective, it's actually very low from a cost perspective. Okay. Thank you so much for that. And if I may add as well, I think, you know, in the context of finance as well, consumers need to also think about the benefits that they're getting from installing solar, right? So for argument's sake, you decide to take up a further advance. You do know that you will be paying interest charges towards that further advance and there will be an installment that you need to pay. Generally, a lot of solar installers are able to illustrate to you what the saving will be. So if you are paying, let's say, a thousand rents a month on electricity, but with solar installation done in your property, you're likely to cost to reduce to 300 rents a month and you're only paying the 500 rents towards the finance from the banks, right? That saving is actually what you should start to look at, you know, on a monthly basis. And then over time, when you've actually paid up the finance that you took up from the banks to finance the solar solution, you actually see that you've actually started saving a lot of money. You know, I may not be able to just basis, you know, because we are on the other part of, but I think calculators are available to assist that customer in understanding the investment and the return as well. Thanks to me. No, thank you so much for that. And thank you, Vishay, as well as you too, Portia, for joining us tonight and sharing so much light in terms of solar power and, you know, renewable energies that one can use. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Have a good evening. It's only a pleasure. And, you know, you're more than welcome and those views to reach out if you ever need advice. That's what we, that's the role we play. Okay. Thank you so much. Have a great evening. Thank you. Same to you. Bye. Well, that was an enlightening interview that we just had there on solar power. But before we leave here are some solar power highlights with five fast facts. You can save money on your electricity bill by going off the grid. Even though it can be pricey to set up, the return on investment is well worth it. Solar power is one of the cleanest and most sustainable energy sources. It doesn't rely on fossil fuels or any of their nasty byproducts. The earth receives approximately 174 power watts of solar radiation every single day. And around 30% of the solar radiation that strikes the earth is absorbed by its upper atmosphere and reflected into space. The remaining amount is absorbed by clouds, oceans, as well as the land. Off-grid solar systems can store power during the day for use at night or on cloudy days. Grid-connected solar system also allow you to use solar during the day. Solar panels and LED lights are constructed in the same manner. When exposed to bright lights, the LED produces a small amount of power and solar panels light up when fed the proper amount of current similar to LED lights. If you're still interested in learning more then you are at the right place but that is about it for tonight. Thank you so much once again for showing us love on Facebook. We really, really appreciate it. And the winner for tonight's 500 grand cash prize is Drumroll, please. SmooseesawSMK, thank you so much for engaging with us on the timeline and we really, really appreciate it on the comment section rather. Thank you so much. We will see you tomorrow at 7 p.m. From myself to me and the private property podcast family have a good one.