Motsepe-backed GoSolr plans $537m South Africa expansion

GoSolr, a company backed by South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe and the continent’s biggest bank, plans to spend R10 billion 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 and Standard Bank Group. The company, which say it’s the biggest of its kind in South Africa, is one of a number capitalising on the power cuts and surging electricity prices that have afflicted the country since 2008. The amount of rooftop solar in South Africa more than doubled to 5 440 megawatts in March from the year earlier. About 620 megawatts of that was on residential properties, according to data compiled by the Johannesburg-based company.