Page 40 - Energize October 2021

VIEWS AND OPINION

households, and they are most often billed at a higher tariff.
They thus make a higher contribution to the municipality’s
overall income from electricity sales. Their contribution is
critical to subsidising other services that make our cities and
towns functional and safe to live in.
However, wealthier residents can also afford to invest in
rooftop PV that will reduce their electricity consumption and
their reliance on supply from municipalities, but also their
contribution to municipal income.
In 2018, WWF-SA and the Centre for Renewable
and Sustainable Energy Studies (CRSES) at Stellenbosch
University conducted an online Household Energy Survey to
examine what influences a household’s decision to invest in
rooftop PV.

The survey made provision for three types of respondents:
• Those who have already invested (PV-owners)
• Those that might install PV
• Those that are not planning to install PV at all.

The results of the survey tell us how households are making
their investment decisions now and what will motivate their
investments in the future.

How do households make decisions to invest in
PV systems?
Three potential motivations were put to respondents
– financial factors, social influences and environmental
concerns.

Financial factors
Finances are the biggest motivator and the biggest barrier.
High upfront installation costs play a more significant role
in the investment decision than the possibility of reducing
the household’s electricity bill or rising electricity prices in
the future.
Social influences
Social factors play a major role in decision-making to
install rooftop PV. Respondents who had installed the
system were more likely to have had some exposure to
it, for example, knowing someone who had installed
rooftop PV – 74% of PV-owners knew people in their
neighbourhood that had installed rooftop PV. This means
there is a contagious effect which is interesting for cities
in future planning. Respondents were also more likely to
have done their own research and/or read articles and
advertisements for PV systems.
Many PV-owners (71%) and those that might install PV
in the next few years (68%) mentioned their lack of trust in
government and/or Eskom as an important motivation in
their decision to invest in rooftop PV.

Environmental concerns
Although most respondents care about the environment,
realise that electricity from coal contributes to climate
change and want to reduce their environmental impact,
these were not significant motivators for investing in PV.
There was no difference between respondents who invested,
want to invest or do not contemplate investing in PV systems.

energize | October 2021 | 38