[imagesource: Twitter / @versofydotcom]

South Africa’s rolling blackouts only seem to be getting worse.

Did you see how loudly social media was shouting yesterday when Eskom announced stage 6 load shedding? Eish.

Thank you EskomSePush for so lovingly notifying us that Cape Town will ‘only’ suffer stage 4 load shedding.

(That’s due to energy generated by our dams, in case you were wondering.)

When powerlessness hits, one cannot help but look up at the sky and cry, surely not? And then you realise, the sun is right there, why are we not using it more?

If anything, Eskom’s nonsense is driving a new era of solar, where more homeowners are keen to implement alternate power solutions.

The thing is, going off the grid requires careful planning and budgeting.

Business Insider reports on a new solar financing company on the block.

Image: Versofy

Versofy says it’s making solar solutions affordable by offering subscription-based solar financing under a rent-to-own model, utilising solar panels, batteries, and grid energy to run the household.

It is also offering solar as a service model, where the customer doesn’t have to break the bank to own the solar panels themselves.

All of that is sold as a budget as opposed to an interest rate, which makes things much cheaper.

Ross Mains-Sheard, CEO and co-founder of Versofy, explains more about these models:

The rent-to-own plan is a 60-month to five-year term after which the customer takes ownership. While the solar-as-service option is a three-year or 36-month contract, and is 40% cheaper than the rent-to-own option, Mains-Sheard said.

The company’s aim is to offer cheaper and shorter payment terms, he said.

Versofy’s ultimate goal is to “get in line with Eskom, at parity with what you would pay your City of Joburg, or Eskom, or your municipality, or cheaper ideally”.

You can check out more and request a solution on the Versofy website.

If this doesn’t cut it, there’s also WiSolar, helping energy-deprived Saffas buy prepaid solar electricity through an app.

Thanks Eskom, but no thanks.

[source:businessinsider]