Solar Systems from the Leading Solar Company & Installers in Cape Town

Most homes need around 5kWp of solar panels. Paired with a quality 10kWh battery, that comfortably handles a monthly electricity bill up to R2,000 — and starts from around R100,000 installed. Larger homes, higher bills, or the need for full backup will push that up, but it’s a solid starting point for most households. Roof type also plays a role — metal roofs are faster and cheaper to work on than tiles.

As one of the longest-established solar installers in Cape Town, we’ve seen every roof type and every budget — and we’ll tell you honestly what makes sense for yours.

When lithium batteries first entered the solar market, most systems were designed around low-voltage (LV) technology — largely because that’s what the industry was used to from the lead-acid era. It was a familiar starting point, but not necessarily the best one. High-voltage (HV) lithium batteries operate at significantly higher voltages — typically 300V and above — which means less energy is lost in conversion, the system runs more efficiently, and the components throughout the installation can be smaller and better matched. In practical terms: more of the energy your panels generate actually reaches your home or business. HV systems also scale better, integrate more cleanly with modern hybrid inverters, and carry stronger long-term performance credentials. Safety and thermal management are better handled at higher voltages with quality components. We moved away from low-voltage lithium entirely for new installations. Not because LV doesn’t work — we still service and support existing LV sites — but because HV is simply the better solution for anyone starting fresh today. When we design a new system, we’re not going to recommend yesterday’s technology just because it’s cheaper to procure.

In Cape Town, 1 kWp of solar panels produces roughly 1,400–1,700 kWh per year — one of the best yields in the world thanks to our sunshine hours. Most households land between 3–10 kWp depending on usage, with 5 kWp being a solid starting point for an average home. The right size depends on your actual consumption, your roof, and whether you’re pairing panels with battery storage. That’s exactly what we work out together during a consultation — no guesswork, no oversizing to inflate a sale.

Yes — a hybrid system with battery storage switches over seamlessly the moment the grid goes down. No flicker, no interruption, no manually switching anything on. Most of our clients stop checking the load-shedding schedule within a week of switching on.

Yes — and the numbers explain why. Lithium batteries are around 95% efficient, allow up to 80% depth of discharge, and last significantly longer under daily cycling. Lead-acid batteries lose 30–50% of their energy in conversion and should only be discharged to around 30% to protect their lifespan. In practice, you need far fewer lithium batteries to do the same job — which offsets the higher upfront cost quickly. We’ve used lithium exclusively for years. There’s no real competition anymore.

It keeps working — just at reduced output. Cape Town winters are mild compared to most of the world, and even overcast days produce meaningful solar generation. A well-sized system accounts for seasonal variation, so your battery still charges during the day and carries you through the night. The honest answer is that your system will cover less of your bill in June than in December — but it won’t stop working, and the gap is smaller than most people expect. We size every system with Cape Town’s seasonal patterns in mind, not just the sunny days.

Often yes — but it depends on your current setup. Some inverters support battery integration directly. Others need to be replaced or supplemented with additional equipment. The good news is that retrofitting batteries to an existing solar system has become much more straightforward as technology has improved. We assess your current system, tell you honestly what’s possible and what it will cost, and design the upgrade around your existing installation rather than starting from scratch. If you have panels already and want to add storage, it’s worth a conversation.

For a typical home installation, from signed proposal to switch-on is usually 2–6 weeks, depending on how busy we are. That includes permits, scheduling, and municipal registration. Commercial projects take longer depending on scale and complexity — we’ll give you a realistic timeline during the design phase, and we stick to it.

Longer than it takes to pay for itself — by a wide margin. Most systems pay back their investment in under 5 years. The shortest warranties on the system — inverters and batteries — are 10 years. Solar panels carry a 25-year performance warranty. You’re not buying an appliance. You’re making a long-term investment that keeps delivering long after the initial cost is recovered.

Yes — and anyone telling you otherwise is cutting corners you’ll regret later. In Cape Town and most Western Cape municipalities, a grid-tied solar system needs to be registered as a Small-Scale Embedded Generation (SSEG) installation. This involves electrical compliance certification, municipal approval, and in many cases a meter change. It sounds like admin — and it is — but it’s also what protects your system, your insurance, and your right to feed surplus energy back to the grid. We handle the entire process as part of every installation. You don’t need to speak to a single official.

SSEG stands for Small-Scale Embedded Generation — it’s the official framework that allows homes and businesses to generate their own electricity and connect it to the municipal grid. In Cape Town, Treetops played a direct role in developing the original SSEG rules and tariffs alongside the City of Cape Town back in 2010. So yes — we know this process inside out. If your system is grid-tied, you need SSEG registration. It’s not optional, and it’s what gives you the legal right to export surplus power and receive credit for it. We manage the full application and registration on your behalf.

Yes — and for a business, the case is even stronger than for a home. Every hour of load-shedding has a direct cost — lost productivity, stopped production, unhappy customers. A hybrid solar and battery system eliminates that exposure entirely. Your operations keep running, your staff keep working, and load-shedding becomes someone else’s problem.

Yes — and there are several models depending on your situation. Short-term asset finance from 3 years suits businesses that want to own the system quickly and maximise long-term savings. For businesses that prefer zero capital outlay, we offer Power Purchase Agreements from 10 to 25 years — you pay only for the electricity the system produces, at a rate below your current municipal tariff. Some PPA structures can even include battery storage. We’ll work through the options with you and recommend what makes the most financial sense for your specific operation.

A Power Purchase Agreement is a finance model where you don’t buy the solar system — you buy the electricity it produces, at a fixed rate lower than what the municipality charges. A third party owns and maintains the system on your roof. You simply pay for the units you consume, at a rate as low as R1/kWh, for the duration of the agreement — usually 10 to 25 years. It means zero capital outlay, no maintenance responsibility, and immediate savings from day one. It’s particularly well-suited to commercial and industrial clients with high daytime electricity consumption. Not every business qualifies — there’s a vetting process — but for those that do, it’s one of the most financially compelling ways to go solar.

Most commercial systems deliver a return of 20% or more (incl BESS) or over 40% (no BESS) in the first year — and that figure grows as electricity tariffs increase. With Eskom and municipal tariffs historically escalating at well above inflation, every year that passes makes the investment look better in hindsight. We model the full 25-year financial picture for every commercial client before a proposal is signed, so you know exactly what to expect.

We start with up to 12 months of your electricity bills. That tells us your consumption patterns, your peak demand, and how your usage shifts across seasons and times of day. From there we design a system sized to your actual operation — not a generic recommendation. A factory running heavy machinery during the day needs a very different system to an office block or a cold storage facility. Getting the sizing right upfront is what determines whether your investment performs the way it should.

We monitor every system we install remotely — which means we often know about a fault before you do. If something needs attention, we respond. You’re not logging a ticket with a call centre or waiting for a manufacturer’s warranty claim to process. We’re a Cape Town-based team and your system is our responsibility long after the installation is complete. That’s not a policy — it’s just how we operate.

We’ve designed and built systems across multiple tie-in points on a single property — Pathcare’s N1 campus is a good example, where we consolidated two separate supplies into one integrated solar and battery installation. Multi-site projects require more detailed planning but the principles are the same. If you have more than one building or more than one electricity account, that’s a conversation worth having.

Sometimes yes — it depends on your lease arrangement and your landlord’s willingness to engage. In some cases the landlord actually benefits from the installation increasing the property’s value, which opens the door to a conversation. PPA structures can also make this easier since the system is owned by a third party rather than the tenant or the landlord. It’s worth exploring — we’ve made it work in situations that initially seemed complicated.