Solar power for your home in Zimbabwe is now as easy as buying a TV!

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About ten years ago, when I looked around Zimbabwe and many other African countries, I saw many barriers that were preventing large-scale adoption of rooftop solar for most homes and small businesses. The main barriers were:

1. High upfront costs of solar hybrid power plants, as the cost of battery storage, inverters, solar panels and the associated balance of the system were out of the reach of most people. Battery storage is a must here to provide backup, as electricity rationing in many countries means that battery backup is needed to fall back on during power outages. For example, in 2016, a residential solution consisting of approximately 6 kWp of solar panels, a 7 kW inverter plus associated equipment and approximately 16 kWh of usable battery storage capacity from a lead-acid battery bank cost just over $34,000 including installation after factoring in the 50% DoD. A system with a 3 kW inverter, 3 kWp of solar panels and 8 kWh of usable lead-acid battery storage cost almost $17,000. That is a lot of money for most people in this part of the world.
2. Lack of long-term financing options such as solar panel leasing programs, PPAs, or even higher purchase and associated financing programs where customers could put down a down payment and then pay off the balance over a year or so, like you normally would for a TV at a furniture store or something.
3. There are a small number of certified solar panel installers, making it difficult to find reliable installation partners for your project.
4. Small number of wholesalers and retailers of solar panels and balancing systems.

For solar to really take off, I thought it had to be almost like a commodity: easy to find, easy to finance, and easy to have professionally installed without any hassle, a bit like going to a big box store or furniture store to buy a washing machine, fridge or TV. The whole process had to be much less frictionless, and give customers the option to make a small down payment and pay the rest off over a few years. Things they’re used to doing when buying other products.

Well, 8 years later, folks! A few things recently brought this to my attention. Over the recent long holiday weekend in Zimbabwe, I visited some friends and family, and they were all excited to show me their newly installed solar panels. These families have had a number of small hybrid systems over the years, and they were excited to show me their recent upgrades. What really impressed me was the seamless process they went through to get their new upgraded solar panels, as well as the price!

For one of the families they received a package consisting of a 6.2 KVA hybrid inverter, a 5.1 kWh LFP wall battery and six 460W mono Canadian Solar panels (2.76 kWp) fully installed at their home. All this with no down payment and 12 monthly payments based on an employee scheme at work. The initial cost of this solar package if someone chooses to buy it outright and not on the monthly plan is approximately $2,800. This was not possible 8 years ago. Arranging a financing package for a similarly sized home solar system that would have cost almost $15,000 back then would have priced many similar families out of the market.

The huge advancements in the solar and battery storage industry have resulted in an incredible drop in the prices of solar panels and battery storage. People used to get lead acid batteries with a shorter lifespan for a lot more money! Now they get a 5kWh LFP battery with a much longer lifespan for a lot less money. How cool is that!

Let’s take a serious look at that. For a home solar package including battery storage, made up of decent quality components (a mix of tier 1 products like Canadian Solar panels and other tier 2 components), you now only need about $3,000 to have it fully installed in your home, compared to about $15,000 just 8 years ago!

That removes the financial barrier. Their frictionless process also showed that the other barriers related to the lack of availability of equipment and also a pool of accredited installers to carry out the installations have also been reduced. The family told me that many of their colleagues at work have also opted for the no deposit option, with payments spread over several months, and have already had their systems installed.

The other family had a similar package installed in their home and went through a similar hassle-free process, but this was not linked to an employee program at work. They got their solar panels from one of Zimbabwe’s largest furniture and appliance stores. When I heard about this, I immediately went to one of these stores to see how it worked. I found out that the process was exactly the same as buying a sofa, a refrigerator or a large TV! You can even pay a small deposit and pay the balance on a monthly payment plan. The store will then send a certified solar installer to your home to do the installation.

Solar has never been easier in this part of the world. It’s almost a consumer product now. For $2,400 you can buy a nice 100-inch TV or you can pick up a decent solar pack from a retailer with many locations across the country. This is great for encouraging adoption and the monthly payment plans are a real game changer. These solar packs may not come with tier 1 inverters and battery packs, but they are a great value for the price point. They are not Tesla Powerwalls or similar products, but if installed correctly and used correctly, these products can provide a decent number of years of good service. Not everyone can afford top-of-the-line products like Tesla Powerwalls, so it’s great to see more options coming to the market that cater to different budgets, through channels that can reach more people and most importantly, with flexible payment options.

Images: Solar deals in Zimbabwe — brochures created by Remeredzai. Images are not for promotional purposes. Images are used here to show what is happening in the solar market in Zimbabwe and are not an endorsement or promotion of any products or the store.