The need for solar power as load shedding cripples small businesses in South Africa

My Sunday afternoon visit to the barber was an unusual one due to load shedding. Load shedding in South Africa refers to planned rotational power interruption when demand for electricity exceeds supply. Load shedding is frequent in winter due to high electricity usage for heating etc.

The past week looks more like today's screenshot below.
With the schedules one has to plan accordingly, get things needing electricity done before power cut. For me it's all about having my phone and laptop fully charged to last for two hours.

For businesses and especially the small businesses, working around the load shedding is almost impossible. The schedule for my area was different to the one of my barber, upon getting to the salon, there was no power, so I had my beard trimmed with rechargeable machine.

The chat with him was why not fuel the generator for electricity and he responded that's more like spending the day's earning on fuel and go home with nothing at the end of the day, I tried asking how much he earns on average daily but that didn't get me anywhere as he wasn't keen on disclosing which is quite understandable.

Thereon, I could relate to the impact load shedding is having on him and small businesses out there in an economy where things are far from good.

Solar power, the solution but again how many are able to afford solar installation? For the bigger companies installing solar power once-off and get over it will pay off in the long term and especially if companies are able to completely go off the grid.
This is practically not an option for the likes of my barber, after attending to me, he closed shop and went to a client's house to provide in-house service.

You just then wonder how does small business survive load shedding in SA?

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