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Buy Energy from SOLA

Your business can now buy renewable energy more simply with SOLA and save millions of rands per year.

Whether on a short or long term power purchase agreement (PPA), our team can work with your business to find an option that helps you realise your cost-saving and carbon reduction goals by signing up to purchase clean electricity from South Africa’s leading provider of clean energy to the private sector. SOLA is the only company operating utility-scale renewable wheeling projects in South Africa. We have hundreds of megawatts of generation capacity with secured grid connections available to buyers. Our 150MW Springbok Solar PV project is under construction and has power available from Q2 in 2025.

ENERGY+SIMPLER.
ENERGY+SIMPLER.

Contracts that are easy to understand and low risk.

ENERGY+CLEANER.
ENERGY+CLEANER.

Using sustainable energy helps you to lower your footprint and meet your carbon reduction targets.

ENERGY+CHEAPER.
ENERGY+CHEAPER.

Get substantial cost savings on your energy use, with a rebate off your Eskom bill.

ENERGY+CHOICE.
ENERGY+CHOICE.

We offer a range of contract lengths to suit your individual business needs. 

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Smarter Cleaner Sooner
Smarter Cleaner Sooner

How The Process Works

Step 01

Tell us about your business

Express your interest by filling in this form. 

Step 02

Assessment

We’ll assess your information to recommend the most suitable energy solution for you.

Step 03

Contract

We’ll send you a standard contract and take you through the commercial terms.

Step 04

Onboarding

Once we’ve both signed the contract, we’ll help you with the process of changing your Electricity Supply Agreement.

Step 05

Success

Your business is now on the journey to being powered by renewable energy in 2025!

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Find out what energy solutions are available for you

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Construction Updates

Project Springbok and Project Naos are both in construction or pre-construction multi-buyer projects in South Africa that will generate a combined 450MW of renewable energy for the private sector. 

As of August the project is 54% complete. See specific construction updates below. 

46% Complete

Tracker Foundations Installed to date

39% Complete

Trackers Installed to date

20% Complete

PV modules Installed to date

Springbok solar facility arial picture
Springbok solar facility arial photograph
Springbok solar facility arial picture in South Africa

FAQ's

There are very few energy suppliers in South Africa with a demonstrated track record of delivering large renewable energy projects to private buyers. Buyers who wish to procure renewable energy must ensure that they partner with reputable companies who have actually delivered projects in line with their promised timelines and tariffs. Buyers should also ensure that Eskom has guaranteed the grid connection capacity for the projects they are considering, as many companies offer projects that have no secured grid connection capacity. It is critical that buyers interrogate the project timelines and tariffs and ensure that these are realistic and reasonable.

Short term PPAs offer a great way to decarbonise your energy supply while saving money. They reduce the risks associated with long-term agreements and provide the flexibility to choose alternative suppliers once the PPA term has expired based on prevailing market tariffs. The shorter term reduced the likelihood of unforeseen changes to regulations and laws around energy supply and tariffs which may negatively impact your savings in the future. They are also less onerous in terms of the kinds of payment guarantees which buyers must provide under longer-term PPAs.

Wheeling is the transportation of energy from a generator (seller), over the transmission and distribution grid, to a customer (buyer). A wheeling transaction is the financial accounting treatment of the energy on the buyer’s electricity bill.

The benefits are that the buyer only has to enter into a wheeling transaction with a seller instead of having to design, build and commission their own renewable energy projects.

Why can you only wheel to Eskom sites?

Eskom has had a wheeling policy in place since 2009. Not all distributors (municipalities) have unbundled tariffs (time of use tariffs) or wheeling policies in place to allow wheeling and that can be used to determine wheeling charges.

Municipalities generally do not have the necessary wheeling and use-of-system tariffs in place, nor the necessary billing, metering and data processing systems to accommodate time-of-use wheeling transactions across both Eskom and municipal networks, to a customer supplied by the municipality.

Trading occurs when a company buys power from multiple generators and sells it to multiple buyers. There are two types of PPAs, one between the trader and the generator and the other between the trader and the buyer. Wheeling is a term for the use of the grid to deliver energy from one party to another party.

A kW is the amount of energy that a generator can supply, like the size of a water pipe. A kWh is the flow of energy during one hour, like the amount of water that flows through the pipe in one hour.

Renewable energy projects can deliver energy for less than half the cost of grid-electricity supplied by Eskom or a municipal grid operator. Costs will vary based on project size, technology type, project location, and whether the project is a wheeling facility (i.e. connected to the Eskom grid) or a behind-the-meter (BTM) facility connected behind the buyer’s meter. Under our power purchase agreements (PPAs) there are zero upfront or operational costs and buyers only pay for the energy that we deliver. The lowest cost source of electricity is utility-scale solar power which can yield huge savings for buyers. Wind power offers lower savings but across more of the day and night. Battery energy storage solutions, when combined with solar PV, also offer large savings with significant flexibility and the ability to generate at specific times.

We have vast amounts of clean energy from hundreds of megawatts of renewable energy generators available to purchase now on a wheeling basis. This power will be delivered to the grid from Q3 of 2025 and will be released on a rolling basis. Buyers who choose to procure energy from generators at their own premises (i.e. “behind-the-meter”) can expect a longer delivery period before they start to receive and benefit from the delivered energy, due to the required environmental and legal permitting processes that must be followed before these facilities can be built. 

A PPA is a Power Purchase Agreement. It is the contract between the buyer and the seller of renewable energy based on the the wheeling transaction entered into. It stipulates the length of the term that the seller will generate electricity, the tariff that the seller will charge and the volume that will be generated for the buyer.

How does the rebate work?

Eskom will credit the buyer’s electricity bill with the amount of energy generated on a time of use basis that the IPP provides to the buyer. This will mean that the buyer only pays Eskom for the electricity not generated by the seller.

The short term PPA on offer by SOLA is still a bilateral contract between the seller and the buyer. There is not trader involved in the transaction but it does allow buyers to buy smaller volumes of electricity on shorter terms.

Energy consumption is tracked at the meter on your property. This meter will track the amount of energy used on a time of use basis to determine your electricity bill. 

Short term PPA detailed step questions:

There are two lengths – either a 2 year PPA or a 5 year PPA.

Buyers who meet the following requirements will be guaranteed their requested volume:

  • Sign the NDA
  • Send their Eskom details (load and demand requirements)
  • Meet credit-worthiness checks
  • Accept commercial terms and PPA
  • Sign PPA (subject to Board approval) with no negotiation on terms

  • Condition Precedent: Begin ESA amendment process within 90 days of signing PPA

Your business will save the volume of energy contracted multiplied by the tariff as set out in the PPA. As the solar tariff is at a discount to the blended Eskom WEPS rate you will be saving monthly on your electricity bill. If you begin to maximise your renewable energy coverage now, the compounding effect of your savings is increase.

Load details

  • Eskom bill 
  • Load profile 
  • Eskom grid
  • Supply Voltage
  • Transmission zone
  • Tariff structure 

Financial information

  • Minimum Credit Rating  of “B” National Scale Rating for SA, OR
  • Audited financial statements OR
  • A letter from auditor that your Minimum Net Asset Value (Buyer or Guarantor) is equal to 2 x payment commitments over the PPA or two years, OR
  • Liquid Payment Security for 6 months of forecast buyer payments

SOLA remains the leader in power wheeling in South Africa, and the only IPP operating utility-scale renewable wheeling assets. SOLA is the only company, including traders and aggregators, to have financed a project based on aggregation of multiple buyers. 

What is the renewable energy certificate?

Renewable energy certificates (RECs) are a tradable market-based instrument that represents the legal property rights to energy generated by renewable energy sources, such as solar. Buying RECs is not equivalent to buying electricity. Instead, when the electricity is generated by a renewable generator, the energy is unbundled into the kilowatt hours and into the green data associated with the generation of the kilowatt hours. RECs represent the clean energy attributes or green data of renewable electricity.

 

The terms of the PPA will be standardised across all buyers. These will be available once the NDA is signed.

No, these PPAs will only cover a portion of your renewable energy needs as solar PV usually covers your standard and some of your peak energy usage.

The buyer will need to amend their ESA with Eskom. There is an Amendment document which we can provide to you. In this document you will need to provide the percentage  of  Wheeled  Energy to your point(s) of delivery and reconcile it to your Eskom account. SOLA will provide you with the name of the generation facility, a description of the solar facility and the point of generation connection as set out in Annexure A (Wheeling)of the ESA amendment agreement. Please contact us for more details if required.



The energy consumptions needs to be greater than 1 MW and up to 10 MW.

Tariffs are set at a discount to the blended Eskom WEPs rate applicable to the energy offset by the solar PV system at COD. The 2 year and 5 year PPAs will have different discounts applicable to them.

  • We’ll send you an NDA and you will return a signed copy to us. 
  • We will request your electricity load information and will produce a commercial summary based on this data for you to sign. 
  • We will also do a credit check on your business. 
  • If you are eligible, we will then provide you with our power purchase agreement (PPA) for you to review and return the signed copy to us within 4 weeks. 
  • We will also ask you to supply your internal and external Eskom account manager’s details to help with the process of changing your Electricity Supply Agreement (ESA).
  • Once we receive your signed PPA, we will submit the agreement to our Board for approval of all PPAs within 4 weeks.
  • If approved, we will send you a counter signed PPA and your business will now be on the journey to being powered by renewable energy in 2025!
  • The ESA amendment process will begin in parallel.

We have a real track record, we deliver real energy, and we stick to the tariffs and timelines that we’ve committed to our partners. This allows us to negotiate with our financial service providers for rates that we pass on to our buyers. The short term PPAs have already been financed as part of a multi-buyer PPA which also brings down costs.

Yes because the PPAs have stipulated escalation clauses, usually based on inflation.

A non-disclosure agreement is needed for both parties. It allows you to share your load profiles and financial information with SOLA. And it allows SOLA to share the commercial summaries and PPA with you once signed.

Instead of providing a Liquid Security, the buyer may provide a cash deposit upfront, which will be held by in escrow in an interest bearing ring-fenced account;

An ESA is an agreement where a generator, usually Eskom, agrees to supply electricity to a buyer. In turn, the buyer agrees to take from the generator all the electricity required by the buyer based on the terms and conditions set out in this agreement.

You will still be subject to load shedding as wheeling does not protect you from Eskom’s load shedding programme. You will however be indirectly contributing to the lowering of load shedding by supporting the generation of lower cost renewable energy which improves the electricity challenge for all South Africans.

Have a question for us?

Email hello@solagroup.co.za

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