New York-based energy investment company E+Co has invested R2,3-million into Johannesburg-based solar power specialist Home Comfort.

Home Comfort MD Hendrik Roux says that this development will be pivotal to the company’s plans to become the biggest solar 
energy player in Southern Africa. He says that the loan will enable it to expand its business to meet the increasing demands of the renewable energy market in Southern Africa.

“Solar water heating comprises more than 60% of our business and we approached E+Co for the loan to help us grow this division in tandem with the burgeoning market, which is accelerating primarily as a result of the current energy crisis. This escalation is reflected 
in the fact that, over the past three years, our company has achieved growth in excess of 50%,” he says.

Roux notes that, at present, local peak energy 
demand exceeds supply and to stabilise the situation, Eskom has demanded that domestic and industrial consumers reduce their electricity use by at least 10%, and Home Comfort hopes to achieve this by imposing penalty tariffs for consumption above the 90% baseline.

As a result, he says, South Africans are looking for alternative energy sources to counter 
the increasing cost of electricity, with the solar water heating sector being identified as critical to achieving national renewable energy targets. Therefore, he says, E+Co’s investment in its business will support the national energy efficiency strategy.

Roux notes that solar water heating can save as much as 75% of a household’s energy consumption for heating water. In the recent past, the payback period on solar water heating systems was about five years, but since the energy crisis took hold, this payback period has come down to two years. 


The multimillion-rand loan to Home Comfort is E+Co’s seventh investment into South Africa’s solar water heating industry. The company has four other active South African solar water heating investments and two pending disbursements for this sector.

“Our market-driven approach has leveraged the immense power of local entrepreneurs to create a cleaner, healthier and more prosperous planet,” says E+Co Africa investment 
officer Gavin Watson.

“E+Co has attempted to diversify the portfolio by selecting companies with differentiated business models, using different solar water heating technologies, or by geographic location. Home Comfort is a new-generation renewable energy business, which offers a viable business model into which we could invest,” he says.

Home Comfort is one of 20 South African Bureau of Standards-approved solar water heating suppliers and an approved Eskom supplier. In September last year, Home Comfort launched domestic solar geyser installation at an inclusive cost of R10 000, resulting in what it claimed to be the first affordable solar geyser on the local domestic housing market, a 150-∙ geyser powered by energy 
from the sun.

The company is an accredited supplier on the Eskom Solar Programme, a national solar partner to Absa and a supplier of solar heating for domestic, commercial and public facilities.

E+Co has been focused on investing in local energy businesses in Africa, Asia and Latin America for the past 15 years.