South Africa’s state-owned utility, Eskom, has abandoned a controversial and costly requirement for registering rooftop solar systems, a significant victory for startups and civil society groups who argued the red tape was strangling the industry.

The policy shift removes the need for a professional engineer to sign off on small-scale solar installations, a rule that critics said added up to R30,000 (approx. $1,700) to the cost for homeowners and created a major bottleneck for installers.

This reversal comes after intense criticism from organisations like the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA), which met with Eskom in August to challenge the rules. OUTA described the requirement as “irrational, unfair, anti-poor and discriminatory” against households and businesses trying to move away from the country’s notoriously unreliable grid.

The bureaucratic hurdle was a major pain point for South Africa’s burgeoning solar tech sector. Companies that had seen explosive growth installing systems to help citizens escape “load-shedding” — the local term for daily rolling blackouts — found themselves hitting a wall of paperwork.

Solar startups reported that customers were delaying or cancelling installations due to the high costs and complexity of the registration process.

“The intent behind [registration] isn’t unreasonable — it’s about safety and planning,” said Johanna Horz, chief of staff at Wetility, a Sandton-based solar provider that raised $48m in 2023. “But the rollout has been chaotic.”

The Policy Reversal

The central issue was Eskom’s requirement for approval from a professional engineer. Activist groups and industry bodies argued this was redundant.

OUTA stated that the mandatory South African National Standard (SANS 10142–1) for electrical installations was already being amended to specifically cover solar and battery systems. They argued this standard, enforced by any registered electrician, provided all the necessary safety and compliance regulations without the need for a costly engineer.

Bowing to the pressure, Eskom announced the change, effective from October 1, 2025.

The key change: Homeowners with systems under 100kW no longer need a professional engineer’s approval. Instead, a standard Certificate of Compliance (CoC) issued by a Department of Labour (DoL)-registered electrician (specifically an installation electrician or master installation electrician) is now sufficient.

Eskom confirmed the move followed a “review of compliance and safety requirements” and a “stringent due diligence process.”

Easing the Financial Burden

The removal of the engineer sign-off is the most significant cost-saving, but Eskom has rolled out other concessions to encourage legal registration:

• No Fees: Registration and connection fees for household solar systems up to 50kVA are waived until March 2026.
• Faster Process: Signoff by a registered electrician is quicker and more accessible than securing a professional engineer.
• Simpler Requirements: The process now only requires a valid CoC and a basic EGI (Embedded Generation Installation) test report.

Eskom claims these additional waivers mean customers “can save over R9,000 on connection costs for a typical 16kVA rooftop solar system,” separate from the savings on the engineering sign-off.

A Broader Battle Over Red Tape

While the industry is celebrating this win, it solves only one part of a larger problem.

Solar registration in South Africa remains fragmented. Homeowners must register with their local municipality if they are not direct Eskom customers. Critics, including Wetility’s Horz, point out that this process is a mess.

“It varies by municipality, many of which lack the digital systems or staffing needed to process registrations efficiently,” Horz said.

The tension stems from a fundamental conflict: municipalities, which rely on electricity sales for up to 40% of their revenue, are losing money as more affluent customers move to solar. This has led some to drag their feet on approvals or impose punitive tariffs.

Eskom and municipalities maintain that registration is essential for grid safety. Unregistered systems, they warn, could back-feed power into offline transmission lines, posing a lethal risk to technicians during maintenance.

For solar startups, the removal of the engineer rule is a crucial victory that removes the most expensive barrier. However, the focus now shifts to the wider challenge: streamlining the inconsistent and slow municipal-level bureaucracy that still threatens to slow down South Africa’s solar revolution.