Billionaire-Backed GoSolr Expands to Beat South Africa Blackouts
- Home solar subscription company is capitalizing on power cuts
- Just 0.7% of South Africa’s 17.8 million homes use solar
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GoSolr, a company backed by South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe and the continent’s biggest bank, plans to spend 10 billion rand ($537 million) to roll out a model of renting solar panels and batteries to homes in the nation plagued by blackouts.
The two-and-a-half-year-old company seeks to install about 500 megawatts of solar-generation capacity in four years. That’s up from its current 70 megawatts, said Andrew Middleton, GoSolr’s chief executive officer. It has attracted investment and financing from Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital Investments Ltd. and Standard Bank Group Ltd.