Empowering the Eastern Cape
(and Beyond)
with Sustainable Energy Solutions
At Kouga Renewables, we are dedicated to transforming the Eastern Cape’s energy landscape through our unwavering commitment to superior service and support, municipal compliance, nurturing meaningful relationships, and delivering top-tier quality products for all your solar and renewable energy needs. Our core values form the cornerstone of our mission to provide sustainable solutions that not only harness the power of nature but also enrich the lives of our valued residential and commercial clients.
Our Story...
How it started
Kouga Renewables was founded in October 2015 in St Francis Bay. The founder had 26 years experience in electrical engineering starting in micro-electronics and then progressing to power electronics and electronic manufacturing. His last position in the corporate world was building inverters for utility scale wind and solar farms. As all good stories do, Kouga renewables genesis was in a bar when he overheard someone struggling to install a grid-tied inverter and offered to help. It was a simple fix, and Kouga Renewables was up and running.
We installed our 1st Li-on battery in Mar 2016 which has been in daily use since then and still retains 92% of its capacity. In the intervening years we have installed 360+ residential systems in the greater Kouga region and our reach extends down to George and up to Port Elizabeth. With the exponential growth of the business in early 2021 we welcomed 2 new directors into the business and took all our installation and electrical work inhouse. We are exceptionally proud of our achievements in bettering the lives of our employees and watching them achieve their goals.
In early 2021 with new energy in the business, we started to develop our commercial offerings and started off with a sweetcorn farm and packhouse in Limpopo, installing a 400kw Solar array, 240Kw hybrid inverter and 600kwh of battery capacity. From there, the commercial side has grown exponentially and we have an installed base of over 4.5Mw solar and in excess of 6Mwh of storage. A new arrangement with a national retail chain will see the commercial side of the business grow exponentially over the medium term.
Meet the team
Frank Ellis
Founder & CEO
Andrew Steen
Managing Director
Chris Ellis
Founder & CEO
Who we work with
Kouga Renewables specializes in providing stable and reliable electricity solutions for both residential and commercial customers within the Kouga Municipality
With a gradual decline in equipment pricing over the past three years and favourable tariff increases, the payback period for residential systems is now around six years, while commercial systems achieve payback in less than half that time, aided by tax incentives. We insist on using high-quality, certified equipment, expressing concern over the proliferation of cheap and uncertified options in the market. We differentiate ourselves by developing an in-house Energy Management System for commercial installations and a thermal battery for refrigeration, reducing cooling costs. Additionally, they we are involved in a Biogas plant on a pig farm that produces 250Kwp, with the nitrate output proving more valuable than the electricity generated.