Cash for Power: Cape Town Buys Back Rooftop Solar

Cape Town runs its own electricity distribution across roughly 70% of the metro, and since 2023 it has bought surplus power back from customers on that network. Exports from authorised small-scale embedded generators, mostly rooftop solar, are credited to the municipal account at a feed-in rate approved by the national regulator NERSA, plus a 25c/kWh incentive the City adds itself. Once a bill reaches zero, remaining credit can be paid out as cash — a minimum of R1,000 for households, paid annually, or R5,000 for business, paid monthly. Sellers need an authorised installation and an approved bidirectional meter; in 2024 the City cut the single-phase meter to R6,043 including VAT, from R10,508 for the three-phase unit. The roughly 30% of the metro that Eskom supplies directly cannot take part, and applies to Eskom instead. Uptake stays narrow. The City reported 1,842 sellers at 31 January 2025, a small share of authorised rooftop installations, and said the headline earnings were largely municipal bill credits rather than cash. Selling requires a roof you own, capital for an array, and a City account — and a peer-reviewed national study published in 2025 found South African rooftop solar concentrated overwhelmingly in wealthy, historically white suburbs.

✔ Reviewed by the 1001 Smart Cities editorial desk · 🔎 Last verified 2026-07-26

→ Open this project in the interactive atlas · → ⚡ Energy category · 🚩 Report an error