Boost for search for solar solutions

MD of Home Comfort, Hendrik Roux: “South Africans are looking for alternative energy sources to counter the increasing cost of electricity."

E+Co is an international company with headquarters in New York and was voted Financial Times Sustainable Investor of the Year.

Home Comfort Managing Director Hendrik Roux says the loan will enable his company to expand its business to meet the rapidly increasing demands of the renewable energy market in southern Africa.

“Solar water heating comprises more than 60% of our business and we approached E+Co for the loan to help us grow this division in tandem with the burgeoning market, which is accelerating primarily as a result of the current energy crisis. This escalation is reflected in the fact that over the past three years, our company has achieved growth in excess of 50%,” he says.

Roux adds that solar water heating can save as much as 75% of a household's energy consumption for heating water. In the recent past, the payback period on solar water heating systems used to be around five years, but since the energy crisis took hold, this payback period has come down to two years.

Home Comfort is one of some 20 SABS-approved solar water-heating suppliers and an approved Eskom supplier, and its commercial customer base includes Sun International, Protea Hotels and the University of Pretoria. In September this year it launched a domestic solar geyser installation at an inclusive cost of just R10 000 and claims that this is the first truly affordable solar geyser to come onto the local domestic housing market.

The company says the new package, fully inclusive of installation and commissioning, has effectively bridged the affordability gap for middle-class South Africans, who can now enjoy the substantial electricity savings associated with a 150l geyser powered by energy from the sun.