Solar Power for The Gary Kirsten Foundation, Cape Town – 8 kW Solar Installation

First Energy Solar Installers has completed an 8 kW grid-tied solar installation for The Gary Kirsten Foundation in Cape Town, which uses cricket to develop young people in under-resourced communities. Ten 540 W glass-on-glass panels feed a battery-ready 8 kW Fox ESS hybrid inverter, and the system is expected to generate about 9,137 kWh a year – avoiding more than 4 tons of CO₂ annually.

The brief: lower running costs for a non-profit

For a foundation, every rand spent on electricity is a rand not spent on its programmes. The brief was a simple, robust system that would cover the facility’s daytime consumption, be easy to monitor, and allow a battery to be added later to keep lights and equipment running through outages.

The solution: 10 panels on a battery-ready 8 kW hybrid inverter

• 10 × 540 W glass-on-glass solar panels (5.4 kWp)
• 1 × 8 kW Fox ESS hybrid inverter, installed grid-tied and ready for a battery
• Roof-mounted on aluminium rails with SSEG-compliant DC and AC protection
• Online monitoring through the Fox ESS app
• Certificate of Compliance and City of Cape Town SSEG registration handled by First Energy

The Fox ESS hybrid platform means the foundation can add a lithium battery when funds allow, turning the same installation into an outage solution without replacing the inverter.

The results

• Estimated annual generation: 9,137 kWh – roughly 760 kWh a month
• Carbon avoided: over 4 tons of CO₂ per year
• Daytime consumption now largely supplied by solar

Actual savings depend on how much of the home’s consumption falls in daylight hours and on the applicable tariff, which is why we model every system on the client’s own usage before we quote. With a battery on the hybrid inverter, evening consumption and load-shedding cover come onto solar as well. Watch the installation in the videos below.

Solar for schools, sports facilities and non-profits in Cape Town

We install for schools, foundations and community facilities across the Cape Town metro, including our work on the WCED schools solar programme. See where we install across Cape Town and the Western Cape.

Frequently asked questions

Do non-profits qualify for any solar incentives?
Non-profits do not pay income tax, so the Section 12B allowance does not apply, but the electricity saving itself is immediate and we can structure rent-to-own or sponsored installations. Ask us about options.

Can a battery be added to this Gary Kirsten Foundation solar system later?
Yes. The 8 kW Fox ESS inverter is a hybrid unit, so a lithium battery can be connected at any time for load-shedding backup and evening use without replacing the inverter.

Does a home solar system in The facility need to be registered?
Yes. The facility is supplied by the City of Cape Town, which requires all grid-connected systems to be registered as small-scale embedded generation (SSEG). First Energy prepares and submits the application as part of the installation.

Thinking about solar in Cape Town?

Send us your latest electricity bill and we will send back a free solar savings report showing the right system size, cost and payback for your home. Call 087 148 2012, WhatsApp 084 597 1279 or see our Cape Town solar installation page. Browse more of our installations across Cape Town and the Western Cape.